SSAYS  - 

.  .  ON  .  . 

CHURCH  MUSIC. 


L 


Read  before  the  First  Convocation  of  Church 
Musicians,  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  June  1st,  1898. 

No.  1.    Sunday  School  Music  in  its  Relation  to  the 

Service  of  the  Church 1 

The  Rev.  G.  C.  E.  Haas. 

No.  2.   The  Sphere  of  the  Choir  in  the  Rendering  of 

the  Service  9 

The  Rev.  Luther  D.  Reed. 

No.  3.  The  Idea.Underlying  the  Lutheran  A\ain  Service      19 

The  Rev.  Prof.  A.  Spaeth,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

Read  before  the  Second  Convocation  of  Church 

Musicians,  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  June  15-16, 1899. 
No.  4.   What  is  Church  Music  ? 25 

1  he  Rev.  Prof.  A.  Spaeth,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

No.  5.   Mow  to  Secure  Good  Congregational  Singing        33 

The  Rev.  R.-Worris  Smith. 

No.  6.  The  Festivals  of  the  Sunday  School  with  Ref- 
erence to  Their  A\usic  41 

The  Rev.  Gomer  C.  Rees. 

No.  7.  The    Vesper    Service— Its    Idea,  History  and 

Structure 49 

The  Rev.  C.  Theodore  Benze,  B.  D. 

No.  8.  The  Gregorian  Element  in  Church  Music        -     63 

The  Rev.  Luther  D.  Reed. 

No.  9.   Psalmody 71 

The  Rev.  Elmer  P.  Krauss. 

No.  10.  The  Lutheran  Choral 81 

The  Rev.  H.  D.  E.  Siebott. 

No.  11.   Anglican  Church  A\usic 89 

r_  ^    ^  The  Rev.  d.  P.  Ohl,  /Vis.  Doc. 

£r44£ 


THE  BENSON  LIBRARY  OF  HYMNOLOGY 

Endowed  by  the  Reverend 

Louis  Fitzgerald  Benson,  d.d. 


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LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 
PRINCETON,  NEW  JERSEY 


SC 

s7 


Sunday  School  Music  in  Its  Relation  to 
the  Service  of  the  Church. 


BY  THE   REV.  GEO.  C.  F.  HAAS. 


Next  after  the  pure  preaching  of  the  Truth  of  God,  the  administra- 
tion of  the  Sacraments  in  accordance  with  this  Truth,  and  the  recognition 
and  confession  of  this  Truth  in  a  pure  service,  there  is  nothing  of  greater 
importance  in  the  public  worship  of  the  Church  than  the  musical  setting 
of  the  service.  Church  music  is,  and  of  right  should  be,  far  more  than 
a  mere  aesthetic  embellishment  of  the  Church  service.  It  is  rather  a 
proper  expression  of,  as  well  as  a  valuable  aid  to,  the  worship  of  the 
Christian  congregation.  Leaving  aside  the  consideration  of  its  service- 
ableness  as  not  germane  to  the  subject  of  this  paper,  we  cannot  but 
emphasize  the  appropriateness  of  Church  music  as  a  vehicle  of  expres- 
sion in  divine  service.  By  its  rhythmical  movement  uniting  in  one  ac- 
cord the  prayerful  utterance  of  the  worshiping  congregation,  by  its 
melodic  progression  elevating  this  utterance  above  the  level  of  common- 
place speech,  and  by  its  harmonic  setting  beautifying  and  inspiring  it, 
music  is  indeed  eminently  fitted  to  give  external  expression  to  the  ele- 
vated thoughts  and  feelings  of  adoration,  praise  and  prayer.  But  what 
is  thus  generally  true  finds  its  particular  application  in  the  fact  that  the 
musical  expression  of  a  thought,  owing  to  the  flexibility  and  subjective 
quality  of  music,  is  a  reflex  of  the  soul  from  which  it  flows.  True  music 
is  characteristic,  and  the  more  distinct  and  marked  the  character  of  the 
musician,  the  more  distinct  and  marked  is  the  character  of  the  music. 
That,  therefore,  there  is  Church  music,  distinct  and  different  from  pro- 
fane worldly  music,  need  occasion  no  surprise.  And  that  a  Church  with 
such  marked  characteristics  as  the  Lutheran  should  have  its  own,  Lu- 
theran, Church  music  follows  as  a  natural  consequence. 

The  task  assigned  me  really  involves  the  answering  of  the  question, 
how  to  bring  the  children  and  youth  of  our  Church  to  a  proper  acquaint- 
ance with,  and  appreciation  of,  the  treasures  of  our  Church  music,  and 
especially,  how  to  do  this  through  the  agency  of  the  Sunday  School. 

Before  proceeding  to  give  this  answer,  it  may  be  well  to  call  to 
mind  the  Lutheran  idea  as  to  the  aim  and  object  of  the  Sunday  School 
on  the  one  hand  and  the  characteristics  of  the  music  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  service  on  the  other,  in  order  thus  to  show  that  a  relation  be- 
tween Sunday  School  music  and  the  service  of  the  Church  does  and  should 
subsist. 


According  to  Lutheran  ways  of  thinking,  the  aim  of  the  Sunday- 
School  is  not  only,  nor  even  chiefly,  evangelistic  and  missionary.  It  is 
not  only  to  bring  in  those  who  are  yet  without;  it  is  also  to  instruct 
and  train  those  who  are  within.  In  the  absence  or  insufficiency  of 
parochial  or  other  religious  schools,  the  Sunday  School  has  a  duty  to 
perform  to  the  children  of  the  congregation.  In  distinction  from  the 
sectarian  view,  however,  the  Lutheran  Sunday  School  recognizes  and 
treats  these  children  as  baptized  members  of  the  Church  and  therefore 
eschews  mere  emotional  means  applied  with  the  idea  of  making  Chris- 
tians of  them,  but  rather  builds  upon  the  God-laid  foundation  by  systematic 
nurture  and  training  in  the  faith  of  the  Church.  For,  recognizing  as 
fundamental  the  things  that  separate  the  Lutheran  from  other  Churches, 
the  Lutheran  Sunday  School  also  emphasizes  the  confessional  standpoint, 
keeping  herself  aloof  alike  from  unionistic  and  undenominational  ideas 
and  practices.  Its  work  being  distinctively  Lutheran,  the  music  in  use  in 
the  Lutheran  Sunday  School  can,  therefore,  be  of  none  other  than  a 
Lutheran  character,  preparing  for  the  Church  service. 

Now  the  characteristics  of  the  music  of  this  service  are  those  of  the 
Lutheran  faith  and  life.  It  is  marked  by  adherence  to  objective  prin- 
ciples rather  than  dependence  on  subjective  moods.  It  expresses  not 
so  much  individual  feeling  as  the  faith  of  the  Church.  It  is  not  trivial, 
or  sweetishly  emotional,  but  dignified  and  profound.  Though  adapting 
itself  to  all  times  and  circumstances,  it  preserves  a  unity  of  cast,  ever 
churchly  and  decorous.  Add  to  this  that  it  is  music  for  the  people. 
Though  there  is  abundant  material  for  trained  choirs,  the  essential  por- 
tions of  the  service  are  meant  to  be  sung  by  the  congregation,  each  and 
every  member  uniting  in  the  worship  of  the  God  of  his  salvation. 

From  this  brief  review  .of  what  the  Lutheran  Sunday  School  and 
what  Lutheran  Church  music  is,  or  should  be,  it  is  evident  that  the 
relation  between  them  should  be  a  very  close  one.  How,  then,  is  the 
Sunday  School  to  attain  this  end?  How  can,  and  how  should  the  Sun- 
day School  train  the  children  committed  to  her  care  so  as  to  instill  into 
their  minds  a  knowledge  and  love  for  the  music  of  the  Church  and 
make  them  able  and  willing  actively  and  intelligently  to  join  in  her 
services? 

It  will  hardly  be  necessary  to  dwell  upon  the  first  requirement  that, 
namely,  the  Sunday  School  should  devote  a  not  inconsiderable  part  of 
its  time  and  attention  to  the  practice  and  exercise  of  singing.  This, 
however,  is  not  only  to  be  done  as  a  matter  of  expediency,  in  order  to 
introduce  variety  into  the  exercises,  to  hold  the  interest  of  the  children, 
and  to  enliven  the  sessions  of  the  School,  but  with  a  distinct  educational 
purpose  in  view,  remembering  that  it  is  the  task  of  the  School  not  only 
to  instill  religious  knowledge,  but  also  to  train  in  habits  of  Church 
life.  Therefore  it  becomes  a  question  of  the  greatest  import  WHAT  to 
sing. 

And  right  here  is  an  opportunity,  and  with  it  the  duty,  of  a  thorough- 
going reformation  in  the  prevailing  methods  of  Sunday  School  work. 
The  great  mass  of  the  so-called  Sunday  School  music  of  our  day  has  neither 
Sunday,  nor  school,  nor  even  music  about  it.     It  consists  in  great  part  of  a 


5 

lot  of  senseless  ditties,  manufactured  by  the  yard,  and  made  to  sell,  but 
without  the  shadow  of  a  claim  to  spirituality,  churchliness  or  even  dignity. 
Its  rhythm  vividly  recalls  the  thumpety-thump  of  the  military  brass  band 
or  the  strumming  of  the  banjo;  its  melodies  bring  up  reminiscences  of 
the  waltz-song  or  the  lover's  lay  and  the  blare  of  the  cornet  or  the 
sensuous  drawl  of  the  violin  and  flute  is  wafted  upon  our  imagination, 
while  its  harmonies  rarely  rise  above  those  of  the  accordeon.  Even 
the  better  specimens  of  this  class  of  music  are  emotional  often  to 
mawkishness  and  mediocre  to  insipidity.  Where  the  news  of  the  day 
and  the  questions  of  the  hour  have  replaced  the  Gospel  on  the  pulpit, 
where  pound-parties  and  church  variety  shows  are  the  attractions  about 
which  gathers  the  communion  of  the  saints,  where  the  pure  teaching 
of  the  Word  has  been  set  aside  by  rationalism,  emotionalism  and  send- 
mentalism,  there  such  music  is  the  legitimate  expression  of  the  pre- 
vailing spirit.  Where  conservative  churchliness  is  departed  from,  the 
logical  consequence  is  the  bass  drum  of  the  Salvation  Army. 

When,  then,  is  the  Lutheran  Sunday  School  to  do  with  regard  to 
such  music?  Why,  throw  it  out,  at  once  and  forever.  Consign  the 
"Celestial  Sunbeams,"  the  "Seraphic  Harmonies,"  and  the  like  to  the 
element  to  which  Luther  delivered  the  Pope's  bull.  Stop  aping  secta 
nanism  and  undenominationalism,  introduce  a  good  Lutheran  Sunday 
School  hymnbook  and  begin  at  once  to  sing  the  hymns  and  responses 
there  offered  you.  It  will  require  work  and  time,  but  the  result  will 
richly  repay  your  trouble.  The  children  will  acquire  a  stock  of  virile, 
substantial  tunes;  the  old  chorals  of  the  Church,  with  their  plain  melodies, 
strong  harmonies  and  stately  rhythm,  the  liturgical  treasures  of  our 
Church  used  by  her  in  her  solemn  services,  and  a  selection  of  spiritual 
songs,  which,  though  in  a  more  popular  strain  and  not  used  in  the 
ordinary  Church  service,  are  yet  in  keeping  with  the  rest  and  do  not 
corrupt  the  taste  for  the  more  substantial  music. 

Objections,  indeed,  to  the  introduction  and  use  of  this  style  of  music 
in  the  Sunday  School  are  not  wanting.  It  may  be  argued  that  this  music 
is  not  interesting  to  children,  that  their  tastes  lie  in  another  direction, 
and  that  we  must  furnish  them  with  something  in  a  lighter  vein.  To 
this  we  reply:  It  is  true,  alas,  that  in  many  cases  their  tastes  would 
prefer  the  modern  music;  but  why?  They,  and  often  their  parents 
before  them,  have  so  long  been  accustomed  to  singing  religious  senti- 
ments of  a  watery  nature  to  music,  which,  if  adapted  to  any,  words,  would 
certainly  fit  far  better  to  such  rhymes  as  "Hey,  diddle,  diddle,  the  cat  and 
the  fiddle,"  than  to  the  songs  of  the  Church.  In  other  words,  tastes  are 
often  corrupt,  and  it  is  ours  not  to  stoop  to  such  and  perpetuate  them, 
but  to  cultivate  the  taste  of  the  young  and  elevate  it. 

Again  it  is  urged:  This  music  of  the  Church  is  so  entirely  differ- 
ent from  the  music  they  hear  and  sing  in  their  other  surroundings, 
that  it  is  impossible  to  cultivate  a  taste  for  it.  We  grant  that  it  is  differ- 
ent, different  from  the  music  of  the  world,  different  even  from  the  music 
of  the  secularized  Church.  But  is  it  not  meet  and  right  and  altogether 
to  be  expected  that  it  should  be  so?  Is  not  the  Church  different  from 
the  world?     Is  it  not  well  that  this  fact  should  be  impressed  upon  the 


6 

child  by  all  the  means  at  our  command?  And  as  for  the  impossibility 
of  cultivating  a  taste  for  this  distinctively  churchly  music,  the  same 
argument  would  strike  at  the  most  essential  work  of  the  Church;  for 
the  Church's  Gospel  is  even  less  to  the  taste  of  the  natural  man  than 
the  Church's  music. 

An  objection  not  infrequently  heard  is  that  this  old  music  is  too 
slow  and  stately,  and  therefore  exercises  a  somnolent  effect,  deadening 
the  life  in  a  school.  Answer:  That  depends  in  very  great  measure 
upon  how  the  music  is  rendered.  If  you  take  the  old  chorals  and,  fig- 
uratively speaking,  iron  them  flat,  making  each  note  like  the  preceding, 
a  solemn  half-note,  and  playing  and  singing  them  largo  sostenuto,  it  is 
true.  If,  however,  you  take  the  trouble  to  study  their  original  rhythm 
and  then  sing  them  with  life  and  vigor,  it  is  not  true.  It  is  a  distinguish- 
ing quality,  indeed,  of  Church  music  to  move  more  measuredly  than 
secular  music.  It  is  the  child  not  of  the  swaying,  fickle  mood,  but  of 
the  deep-rooted,  steady  faith.  Yet  dignity  is  not  synonymous  with 
slowness,  and  orthodoxy  is  not  measured  by  sluggishness  of  movement. 

Some  very  frankly  admit  that  they  consider  much  of  the  music 
of  the  Lutheran  service  as  too  stiff  and  antiquated.  They  desire  some- 
thing more  melodious  and  more  in  keeping  with  the  modern  develop- 
ments of  musical  art.  They,  therefore,  make  the  matter  one  of  individual 
taste  and  preference.  Without  going  into  the  question  of  how  far  this 
preference  is  justifiable,  it  may  suffice  to  allude  to  the  fact  that  the 
liturgical  and  hymnological  treasures  of  our  Church  were  brought  forth 
in  the  purest  and  most  spiritual  periods  of  her  history,  and  that  it  is 
but  natural  that  an  age  so  widely  different  in  its  tastes  and  pursuits 
should  have  to  acquire  a  taste  for  those  products  of  a  purer  age.  When 
once  we  have  again  lived  ourselves  into  the  spirit  of  the  old  music, 
there  is,  indeed,  no  reason  why  the  Church  should  not  use  the  freedom 
of  her  gifts  and  with  her  present  enlarged  resources  continue  to  build 
on  the  old  foundations. 

Again,  some  delight  in  change  and  variety.  They  think  it  necessary 
to  introduce  a  new  hymn  book  and  new  hymn  tunes  from  time  to  time, 
and  would  therefore  object  to  the  music  in  question  as  being  always 
the  same.  Knowing  how  soon  they  grow  tired  of  the  modern  Sunday 
School  music,  they  argue  that  the  same  would  be  the  case  with  regarl 
to  the  old.  But  the  cases  are  not  at  all  parallel.  There  is  a  solidity 
about  the  true  Church  music  of  which  you  do  not  tire,  but  which  you 
learn  to  love  and  prize  ever  more  highly.  And  then,  too,  let  the  world 
seek  relief  in  change  and  variety,  the  Church  holds  fast  to  her  old 
approved  treasures. 

Finally,  some  may  be  deterred  from  the  adoption  of  the  music  of 
the  Lutheran  service  into  the  Sunday  School  by  the  idea  that  it  is  too  dif- 
ficult to  learn  and  execute,  and  that  the  desired  goal  is  unattainable.  To 
those  we  would  say:  Try.  No  good  thing  can  be  attained  without 
exertion,  but  the  difficulties  in  this  case  are  not  insurmountable. 

In  conclusion  I  will  briefly  enumerate  some  of  the  requirements 
underlying,  and  some  of  the  means  helpful  in  establishing  in  fact  the 
relation  which  exists  in  theory  between  the  music  of  the  Sunday  School 
and  the  Church: 


i.  It  is  necessary  that  there  be  the  proper  relation  between  the 
School  and  the  Church,  so  that  the  School  be  not  run  as  an  independent 
institution,  but  working  together  with  the  congregation  under  one 
leadership  to  one  end. 

2.  The  use  of  the  proper  Lutheran  hymn  and  service  books  is 
another  essential  prerequisite. 

3.  The  adoption  of  churchly  music  for  the  opening  and  closing 
service  of  the  school.  The  music  used  at  every  session  of  the  school, 
though  it  need  not  be  constantly  the  same,  should  always  be  drawn 
from  the  same  sources,  the  liturgical  treasures  of  the  Church. 

4.  A  definite  part  of  the  school  session  should  be  devoted  to  the 
practicing  of  Church  song.  It  should  be  made  part  of  the  regular 
school  work. 

5.  The  school  festivals  may  be  utilized  to  introduce  new  features, 
new  hymns,  Psalms,  portions  of  the  liturgy  yet  unused  and  where 
necessary  to  bring  them  to  the  notice  of  the  congregation. 

6.  Occasional  allusion  by  the  pastor,  superintendent  or  leader  to 
the  history,  characteristics  and  meaning  of  the  music  sung  may  be 
helpful. 

7.  Finally,  the  actual  rendering  of  Church  song  and  portions  of  the 
service  by  well-trained  schools  or  classes  at  Sunday  School  conventions 
would  without  doubt  be  productive  of  good  results. 

Let  us  rejoice  that  the  Church  bearing  the  name  of  him  who,  while 
the  great  reformer,  was  at  the  same  time  the  great  master-singer  of 
evangelical  Christendom,  has  of  late  again  begun  to  recognize  and 
reinstate  the  liturgical  and  musical  treasures  bequeathed  to  her,  and  let 
us  teach  them  to  our  children,  that  young  and  old  may  unite  in  worthy 
praise  to  the  Lord,  whose  name  we  confess  and  adore. 


The  Sphere  of  the  Choir  in  the  Rendering 
of  the  Service. 


BY  THE  REV.  LUTHER  D.  REED. 


The  Choir,  regarded  as  a  body  of  singers,  of  the  Congregation  but 
yet  separate  and  with  distinct  functions,  is,  in  its  very  nature,  a  product 
of  a  highly  developed  form  of  congregational  life  and  worship.  It  evolved 
not  from  the  private  communion  of  the  individual  believer  with  his  God, 
or  even  from  the  public  worship  of  the  Jewish  people  in  their  early 
history.  Only  after  the  desert  had  long  since  changed  to  the  promised 
Canaan,  and  the  Tabernacle  had  given  way  to  the  Temple,  do  we  ob- 
serve permanent  bodies  of  white-robed  singers  with  specific  functions 
participating  in  the  highly  developed  services  of  the  sanctuary.*  In  like 
manner  the  early  Christians,  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  gathering  in 
catacombs  and  caverns  in  instant  fear  of  profane  interruption,  presum- 
ably ventured  not  beyond  simplest  congregational  Psalmody  and  Hym- 
nody.  But  when  the  various  edicts  of  Constantine  assured  ample 
protection  and  even  royal  patronage,  and  made  possible  regular  and 
permanent  times  and  places  of  common  worship,  the  Choir  as  a  dis- 
tinctive body  soon  again  reappears.  The  music  of  the  Church  received 
great  advancement  at  the  hands  of  Gregory,  but  from  this  time  the 
Congregation  more  and  more  delegated  its  privileges  to  the  growing 
body  of  clergy  and  choristers,  the  latter  soon  coming  to  be  entirely 
distinguished  from  the  Congregation  and  regarded  as  semi-clerical  in 
character  and  function.  The  Middle  Ages,  with  the  absolute  ignorance 
of  the  people,  but  completed  the  passivity  of  the  latter,  while  the  dis- 
covery and  development  of  Harmony  and  Counterpoint  afforded  new 
opportunities  for  the  expansion  of  the  Choir. 

Now  enters  a  new  factor  in  the  history  of  the  Choir  and  its  relation 
to  the  Service  of  the  Church.  Until  this  time  it  had  developed  within 
the  walls  of  the  Church;  its  music  was  true  Church  Music,  evolved  from 
the  very  life  of  the  Church  as  expressed  in  its  Service,  and  as  such  fre- 
quently voicing  its  ever-increasing  doctrinal  error;  its  function  was 
clearly  one  of  worship.  Its  unpardonable  sin  had  been  its  assumption 
of  the  birthright  of  the  Congregation  in  its  appropriation  to  itself  of 
the  Responses  and  other  portions  of  the  Liturgy  which  belonged  to  the 
latter.  That  the  Reformation  knew  how  to  correct.  It  reassured  the 
people   of  the  universal   priesthood  of  believers,   and   raised  them   from 


*  I  Chron.  25,  7;  II  Chron.  5, 12,  etc.  (9) 


10 

the  position  of  auditors  and  observers  of  the  Service  to  actual  partici- 
pants in  the  same.  But  now  the  art  which  had  received  its  quickening 
impulse  and  early  nourishment  from  the  Church  itself,  leaves  its  home 
and  goes  into  the  world.  The  spiritual  character  hitherto  manifest  gives 
way  in  the  air  of  freedom  and  worldly  suggestion  to  secular  thought  and 
expression.  It  in  turn  re-enters  the  Church  and  secures  such  a  name 
for  polyphonic  music,  that  nothing  short  of  the  genius  of  a  Palestrina 
saved  it  from  proscription  and  prevented  the  absolute  extension  of  Gre- 
gorian music  to  all  parts  of  the  Service  in  the  Roman  Church  itself.  He, 
together  with  his  cotemporaries  and  immediate  successors,  both  in  the 
Roman  and  Protestant  Churches,  clearly  vindicated  the  spiritual  power 
and  beauty  of  part  composition,  and  left  works  that  will  serve  as  imperisha- 
ble models  and  ideals  of  true  sacred  music  as  long  as  the  resources  of  the 
art  remain  as  they  are. 

But  spiritual  decadence  within  the  Church  resulted  inevitably  in  the 
fall  of  this  high  standard  of  music.  As  an  art.  Music  developed  rapidly 
outside  of  the  Church.  We  see  the  perfection  of  a  new  scale  system, 
the  restoration  of  strong  rhythm,  the  development  of  the  orchestra  and 
the  rise  of  the  opera,  with  the  accompanying  proficiency  of  players  and 
vocalists.  Lowered  spirituality  in  the  Church  lost  the  conception  of 
the  organic  unity  of  the  Service  itself,  to  the  expression  of  which  unity 
all  Art  was  to  be  subordinated.  Art  asserted,  especially  in  the  Roman 
Church,  a  right  to  be  heard  for  its  own  sake,  and  musicians  and  singers 
from  the  theatre  brazenly  entered  the  choir  loft  and  bade  the  act  of 
service  cease  and  the  thought  of  worship  depart  while  they  displayed 
their  virtuosity.  Within  Protestantism  itself  things  were  little  better. 
Though  Luther  and  his  followers  retained  the  purified  Service,  and  with 
it  the  Choir  as  an  integral  factor  in  its  rendering.*  the  iconoclastic  zeal 
of  the  radicals,  which  was  not  according  to  knowledge,  abolished  the 
Choir  as  distinctively  Popish.  Bitter  sectarian  controversy,  the  ravages 
of  war.  and  later  Pietism  and  Rationalism  allied  to  rob  Evangelical 
Christianity  of  her  simple  faith,  which  was  her  life,  and  with  rude  hand 
shattered  the  forms  of  devotion  that  had  been  at  once  the  conserver 
and  herald  of  that  faith.  Much  of  her  historic  belief,  as  well  as  nearly 
all  of  her  true  Church  Music,  were  placed  together  side  by  side  with 
her  beautiful  Liturgy  in  the  same  grave.  Thus  the  Choir,  where  still 
permitted  to  exist  at  all,,  came  to  have  a  new  place  and  function  in 
public  worship.  Once  an  integral  part  of  the  worshiping  congrega- 
tion and  a  distinct  participant  in  the  united  Service,  it  now  enters  through 
a  side  door  as  a  total  stranger,  and.  in  the  name  of  Art  simply,  br 
in  upon  a  Service  already  arbitrary,  personal  and  temporary  in  character, 
and  affords  relief  from   ennui   or  tedium,   or  at  best   gratifies   individual 

lie  taste.     Such  is  the  unhappy  lot  of  the  Choir  in  general  to-day. 
but   gratefully  we   observe   a   seeking  of  the   old   paths,    a   study   of  for- 


*  Luther  has  left  us  numerous  assurances  of  the  high  regard  he  entertained,  both  for  the 
melodies  of  the  Gregorian  system  and  for  polyphonic  composition.  With  reference  to  the 
latter,  he  said,  "the  one  who  is  not  moved  by  such  an  art  work,  resembles  a  coarse  log,  and 
does  not  deserve  to  hear  such  lovely  music." 


II 

gotten  principles,  and  a  resumption  of  historic  practices  that  shall,  undei 
the  Spirit's  guidance,  lead  us  into  the  truth. 

Of  primary  importance  in  our  endeavor  to  understand  the  proper 
sphere  of  the  Choir  will  be  our  apprehension  of  the  correct  principles  of 
Divine  Worship  in  general.  Let  us  briefly  mention  some  that  most  in- 
timately affect  our  subject.  The  worshiping  Congregation  gathers  not 
simply  to  see  and  hear  the  officiating  ministry  perform  a  vicarious  ser- 
vice, and  to  engage  in  silent,  individual  prayer.  It  comes  as  a  body  of 
spiritual  priests,  reverently  yet  "boldly  approaching  the  throne  of  grace," 
and  together  entering  the  very  Holy  of  Holies.  But  it  assembles  not 
simply  as  a  body  of  Christians  for  common  edification  and  united  sac- 
rifice; where  mutual  fellowship  and  common  faith  may  ''provoke  unto 
love  and  good  works."'  where  individual  understanding  and  experience 
as  voiced  in  sermon,  prayer  or  song  may  enkindle  devout  feeling  to 
be  expressed  in  united  praise  or  prayer.  It  gathers  in  response  to  the 
invitation  of  God  to  engage  in  a  Common  Service,  in  which  it  shall 
receive  through  the  Word  and  Sacraments  His  offered  grace,  and  shall 
in  return  give  its  grateful  sacrifice.  Its  Service  is  thus  a  series  of  recip- 
rocal actions  or  conditions.  It  is  not  merely  passive  nor  alone 
active;  it  receives  and  then  it  gives,  receives  again,  and  is  con- 
strained to  further  offering — a  true  "communion"  of  the  united  body  of 
believers  with  their  Gcd. 

But  as  the  service  of  the  Congregation  is  not  personal  and  individual 
in  character,  but  common  and  collective,  so  it  cannot  separate  itself  from 
the  whole  body  of  Christian  believers.  When  it  enters  upon  its  common 
service  it  is  not  as  an  isolated  Congregation,  separated  in  thought,  in 
faith,  experience,  hope  and  promise  from  all  others  in  the  world.  In 
all  these  it  is  most  intimately  related  to  all  other  bodies  of  true  wor- 
shipers. It  is  but  a  part  of  the  great  worshiping  congregation. 
And  not  only  do  limitations  of  space  fall  away,  but  those  of 
time  as  well.  It  must  recognize  itself  as  a  member  of  the  great  Holy 
Christian  Church,  which  is  the  Communion  of  Saints  of  all  time.  The 
sacramental  grace  it  receives  is  but  its  part  of  the  great  legacy  entrusted 
to  the  Church  Universal  to  administer;  the  sacrificial  offering  of  praise, 
prayer  and  thanksgiving  which  it  brings  is  but  a  single  note  of  the 
symphony  of  devotion,  a  single  breath  of  the  incense  which  for  ever 
and  ever  rises  from  the  golden  altar  in  the  spiritual  temple  of  the  New 
Jerusalem. 

The  fundamental  relation  of  the  local  Congregation  to  the  Church  Uni- 
versal, though  essentially,  of  course,  only  a  unity  of  faith,  is  represented  and 
impressed  upon  the  mind  in  no  clearer  way  than  by  the  Liturgy.  The 
Church  Year,  and  the  naturally  unfolding  expression  of  it  in  the  Liturgy, 
was  a  gradual  and  spontaneous  evolution  from  the  inner  life  of  the  Church. 
It  crystallized  the  consensus  of  Christian  thought,  which  loved  to  review 
the  development  of  God's  plan  of  redemption,  as  well  as  systematically 
to  study  the  doctrines  of  Christian  faith  and  to  learn  the  duties  of  Chris- 
tian life.  In  its  very  nature  it  is  utterly  foreign  to  the  spirit  of  isolation, 
individualism,  emotionalism,  arbitrariness  and  temporality  which  have 
ever    been    the    distinguishing    marks    of    sectarianism.     The    worship    of 


12 

the  Roman  Church  (leaving  out  of  consideration  the  specific  expression 
of  other  doctrinal  error  therein)  ignores  the  evangelical  principle  of  the 
universal  priesthood  of  believers.  The  worship  of  the  Reformed  Churches 
ignores  the  essential  union  with  the  devotional  life  of  the  historic  Church, 
and  regards  the  public  Service  as  entirely  independent,  personal,  and 
purely  eucharistic-sacrificial  in  character.  The  Lutheran  Church  asserts 
the  rights  of  all  believers  to  a  participation  in  the  common  Service, 
and  recognizes  the  essential  connection  of  the  local  Congregation  with 
the  Church  Universal.  It  cuts  itself  loose  from  neither  the  historic 
faith  nor  the  historic  forms  of  devotion  of  the  Early  Church.  Both 
are  cleansed  from  error  and  restored  to  believers,  and  in  the  public  use 
of  these  forms  "of  appealing  beauty,"  which  enshrine  the  pure  faith, 
Minister,  Choir  and  Congregation  together  participate  as  integrant 
factors. 

In  the  light  that  history  and  the  true  principles  of  Divine  Service 
shed  upon  our  path,  it  will  be  at  once  apparent  that  we  cannot  conceive 
of  the  Choir  as  a  species  of  "minor  clergy,"  or  as  exercising  certain 
ministerial  functions,  either  by  reason  of  its  independent  character  as 
a  body  separate  from  the  Congregation  as  such,  or  because  of  powers 
which  the  latter  may  delegate  to  it.  The  Congregation  must  exercise 
its  privilege  of  response,  appropriation  and  confession  itself.  Shall  we 
then  regard  the  Choir  simply  as  the  leader  of  the  Congregation,  as  the 
portion  of  the  latter  chosen  by  reason  of  special  qualification  to  guide 
it  in  devotional  singing?  Or  shall  we  recognize  in  it  the  exponent  of 
the  "musical  charism  of  the  Congregation,  the  ordinary  form  of  the 
original  wonderful  gift  of  tongues,"  which  is  now,  according  to  I  Cor. 
14:26,  to  be  heard  in  the  interest  of  common  edification?  (Hqmmel, 
Kuemmerle,  Koestlin,  etc.)  Or,  again,  shall  we  agree  with  the  writer 
who  says,  "I  consider  the  legitimate  office  of  the  artistic  Choir  to  em- 
bellish and  enrich  public  service;  to  impress,  to  prepare  for  worship;  the 
legitimate  office  of  congregational  song  to  subserve  the  purposes  of  actual 
devotion."     (R.  S.  Willis.) 

All  these  conceptions  seem  to  us  to  fall  short  of  the  true  ideal  of 
the  sphere  of  the  Christian  Choir.  They  all  present  phases  of  the  prac- 
tical work  of  the  Choir  and  its  influence  upon  public  devotion,  and  they 
perhaps  reflect  the  ideas  of  the  great  majority  of  worshipers,  as,  in 
consequence  of  this,  they  explain  to  a  large  extent  the  reason  for  the 
totally  unsatisfactory  character  of  the  great  bulk  of  that  which  by  custom 
and  courtesy  is  called  Church  Music.  A  stream  cannot  rise  above  its 
source.  Radical  misapprehension  of  the  true  principles  of  public  ser- 
vice cannot  but  banefully  affect  every  factor  and  detail  of  that  service. 
The  Choir  is  the  leader  of  the  Congregation ;  it  does  edify  and  en- 
courage devotion;  it  does  bring  the  consecrated  offering  of  spiritual  gifts; 
it  does  beautify  and  enrich  the  Services,  but  all  this  it  does,  or  should 
do,  incidentally — this  is  a  part  of  the  practical  effect  of  its  participation 
in  the  common  Service.  Its  true  sphere  is  wider  than  this;  it  has  an  ideal 
function  to  fulfill. 

We  conceive  of  the  full  Service  as  an  organic  whole  within  itself, 
and  also  as  a  part  of  the  system  or  plan  of  Christian  Service  as  outlined 


13 

in  the  Christian  Year.  In  the  choice  of  the  thought  that  shall  be  upper- 
most and  that  shall  rule  the  character  of  the  particular  Service,  which 
characteristic  thought  or  theme  appears  in  Lections,  Introit,  Psalmody, 
Hymns,  Sermon  and  Collects,  we  see  the  molding  hand  of  the  Historic 
Church.  The  invariable  parts  of  the  Liturgy,  in  every  case  to  be  sung 
by  the  Congregation,  reflect  the  great  unchanging  needs  and  joys  of  all; 
it  is  the  function  of  the  Choir  to  announce  the  special  thought  of  the 
day  or  season  in  certain  of  the  variable  parts  of  the  Service.  And,  as 
Dr.  Schoeberlein,  who  has  especially  advanced  this  idea  of  the  choir,* 
asks,  in  what  manner  can  the  union  of  the  local  Congregation  with  the 
Church  Universal  be  better  represented  than  by  the  Choir  ?  In  the 
Introitt  consisting  of  an  Antiphon  and  Psalm  verse,  a  probable  relic  of 
the  early  Psalmody  at  the  beginning  of  public  worship,  the  Choir,  rep- 
resenting the  Church,  announces  the  thought  of  the  day.  In  the  Gradual, 
Responsories  and  Antiphons,  from  all  of  which  our  modern  Anthem 
has  gradually  developed,  we  hear  the  voice  of  the  whole  Church  sound- 
ing time  and  time  again  the  great  theme  of  the  present  Service,  calling 
all  local  bodies  of  believers  to  unite  in  harmonious  meditation  and  de- 
votion. And  here  we  believe  we  have  the  ideal  sphere  of  the  Choir  in 
the  Service,  the  ideal  function  it  is  called  upon  to  fulfill.  It  constitutes 
one  of  the  three  active,  integrant  participants  in  the  common  Service 
of  God's  people.  All  are  worshipers,  all  are  spiritual  priests  handling 
the  holy  things  of  the  sanctuary,  but  each  has  its  separate  function,  and 
exercising  these,  each  in  turn  now  giving,  now  receiving,  now  declaring, 
again  appropriating,  Minister,  Choir  and  Congregation  together  build  up 
the  beautiful  structure  of  the  perfect  Service  as  an  organic  whole.  The 
Choir  is  of  the  Congregation,  and  it  does  serve  as  its  leader  in  certain 
parts.  So  the  Minister  is  of  the  Congregation,  and  in  the  prayers  leads 
the  whole  body  of  worshipers;  while  Minister,  Choir  and  Congregation 
all  unite  in  voicing  their  hymns  of  supplication  and  praise,  even  as  they 
all  kneel  before  the  same  altar  and  "partake  of  this  one  bread  and  drink 
of  this  one  cup."  But  as  a  distinctive  body  the  Choir  has  its  specific 
function,  even  as  the  Minister  has  his  distinctive  offices.  It  is  not  dis- 
tinct or  separate  in  the  sense  of  a  foreign,  extraneous  body,  intruding 
in  the  Service  simply  in  the  name  of  Art  to  beautify  and  gratify.  For 
when  the  admonitory  and  invitatory  "sursum  corda"  is  proclaimed  from 
the  altar,  the  responding  "habemus  ad  Dominum"  must  not  sound  in 
hollow  mockery,  but  must  voice  in  very  truth  the  spiritual  condition 
of  the  believing  worshipers,  all  standing  in  their  common  need  upon  the 
common  plane  of  a  common  faith.  All  must  be.  and  must  feel  themselves 
to  be,  a  part  of  God's  people  of  all  time,  members  of  the  great  army 
of  the  redeemed.     So  we  hear  the  voice  of  the  Old  Testament  saints  in 


*  Particularly  in  "Schatz  des  liturgischen  Chor— und  Gemeindegesangs,"  and  in  "Ueber 
den  liturgischen  Ausbau  des  Gemeindegottesdienstes." 

f  The  Introit  was  originally  sung  by  the  Choir,  the  Congregation  standing  to  receive 
the  announcement  as  they  did  during  the  Gospel.  Durandus  knows  nothing  of  its  recitation 
by  the  priest,  and  in  Reformation  times  it  was  only  sung  by  the  minister  when  there  was 
no  capable  Choir,  and  for  this  same  reason  in  villages  it  sometimes  took  the  form  of  an  In- 
troit Hymn  by  the  Congregation. 


14 

the  Psalmody  and  in  the  verses  from  the  Psalms  and  Prophets  which 
form  so  large  a  part  of  the  Antiphons;  while  the  very  employment  of 
these  historic  forms  of  devotion  leads  us  to  think  of  those  who,  having 
used  them  ages  ago  and  finding  satisfaction  for  their  souls'  needs  its 
their  beautiful  structure,  left  them,  as  they  passed  into  the  company  of 
the  Host  Triumphant,,  as  a  priceless  inheritance  for  us  and  the  thousands 
yet  unborn. 

Of  course  when  we  speak  of  the  organic  unity  and  completeness  of 
the  Service,  and  define  the  sphere  of  the  Choir  as  we  have,  we  are  dealing 
with  ideals,  liturgical  and  musical;  we  are  beyond  the  bounds  of  bare 
necessity  and  even  of  utility.  But,  as  we  stated  at  the  outset,  the  very 
nature  of  our  subject  leads  us  into  the  realm  of  the  artistic  and  the  ideal. 
The  individual  believer  in  his  private  communion  with  God  needs  not 
the  help  of  Art.  But  the  collected  body  of  worshipers  has  larger  re- 
quirements for  its  public  Service.  It  does  not,  indeed,  demand  a  beau- 
tiful building,  a  richly  developed  form  of  Service,  or  an  artistic  Choir. 
It  can  truly  worship  in  the  woods,  or  in  a  barn,  or  in  caves  and  dens 
of  the  earth,  as  thousands  of  God's  saints  have  done.  But  this  is  not 
the  ideal  place,  nor  are  these  the  most  satisfying  and  helpful  conditions 
for  united  public  worship.  The  very  necessities  for  some  place  to  gather, 
means  for  administering  the  Sacraments,  ways  to  voice  the  common  grat- 
itude, faith  and  prayer,  the  consciousness  of  relationship  with  other 
worshiping  communities  and  the  desire  for  uniformity  in  the  expression 
of  the  common  belief — all  these  not  only  call  for  utilitarian  structure, 
but  they  invite  the  aid  of  Art  itself,  which  is  only  Art  as  such  after  it 
passes  the  limits  of  the  absolutely  necessary  and  utilitarian.  Moses  in 
his  forty  years'  exile  communed  with  God  in  spirit.  When  at  the  head  of 
Israel,  God  Himself  gave  him  plans  for  the  Tabernacle,  with  all  its  wealth 
of  adornment,  and  Himself  invited  His  people  to  contribute  of  their 
means,  talents  and  time  to  its  completion.  The  same  principle  is  ap- 
parent in  the  erection  of  the  Temple,  and  in  the  history  of  the  New 
Testament  Church,  as  soon  as  it  passed  from  the  throes  of  persecution 
and  the  necessity  for  concealment.  The  Renaissance  of  Art  was  indeed 
synchronous  with  the  expansion  of  the  Church  in  its  outward  form  and 
secular  power,  but  Richard  Wagner  is  wrong  in  suggesting  that  this 
employment  and  development  of  Art  was  the  direct  product  simply  of 
the  secularity  and  worldly  pomp  of  the  Church,  as  if,  as  he  says,  "the 
Christian,  who  impartially  casts  aside  both  Nature  and  himself,  could 
only  sacrifice  to  his  God  on  the  altar  of  renunciation:  he  durst  not  bring 
his  actions  or  his  work  as  offering,  but  believed  that  he  must  seek  His 
favor  by  abstinence  from  all  self-prompted  venture.'"*  This  is  largely 
true  of  individual,  private  worship;  but,  as  we  have  seen,  collective  public 
service  presents  new  requirements  and  gladl)r  uses  every  gift  of  God 
for  mutual  edification,  and  thus  appropriates  and  consecrates  every 
helpful  art.  Not  indeed  as  "the  free  Greek,  who  set  himself  upon  the 
pinnacle  of  Nature,  could  procreate  Art  from  very  joy  in  manhood." 
The  development  of  Art.  as   such,   is  not  the   Christian's   aim;   he   seeks 


*  "Art  and  Revolution."— (Ellis  1,  37.) 


15 

the  advancement  of  common,  public  worship,  the  furtherance  of  spirit- 
uality, the  building  up  of  Christian  faith  and  character.  Art  is  not  an 
end.  but  a  consecrated  means;  but  in  its  employment  in  Christian  wor- 
ship, like  all  else  that  ministers  in  the  sanctuary,  it  here  has  received  its 
purest  and  noblest  development. 

This  establishes  the  essentially  distinctive  character  of  Christian  Art. 
It  is  Art  taken  from  the  world,  like  men  and  women  themselves,  cleansed 
and  purified  by  the  Spirit  of  God  and  consecrated  to  His  service. 
Like  these  same  men  and  women,  it  now  has  "einen  anderen  Geist."  As 
the  true  Christian  who  keeps  himself  '"unspotted  from  the  world"  de- 
velops a  life  and  character  that  is  distinctive  in  its  Christianity,  so  must 
all  Art  in  the  employment  of  the  Church  express  its  holy  calling  by  its 
distinctive  form.  Whether  it  be  architecture,  painting,  poetry  or  music, 
it  must  be  "churchly,"  i.  e.,  distinctively  Christian,  purely  symbolical  and 
at  the  same  time  adapted  to  the  requirements  not  of  the  individual  but 
of  the  congregation.  The  observance  of  this  principle  is  of  special 
importance  in  our  consideration  of  the  sphere  of  the  Choir.  Possibly, 
as  has  been  suggested,  Music,  of  all  the  arts,  is  the  hardest  to  subordinate 
in  this  manner.  Impermanent,  intensive,  elusive,  it  seems  to  demand 
the  absolute  attention  of  every  hearer,  and  invites  the  simple  appreciation 
of  its  own  inherent  beauty.  But  just  in  so  far  as  it  fails  to  raise  the 
heart  higher  and  direct  it  to  the  supreme  object  of  worship,  it  is  a  pro- 
faner  of  the  Temple;  it  is  in  the  company  of  those  who  "enter  the  sanc- 
tuary only  for  sacrilege."  Here  we  have  to  do  with  the  elusive,  intangible 
and  yet  intensely  real  quality  that  John  Mason  Neale  in  reference  to 
Architecture  calls  "the  Sacramentality  of  Art."  Abstract  beauty  in  itself 
is  not  the  ideal.  As  the  Roman  writer  Krutschek  has  pointedly  said, 
"the  beauty  of  a  Schiller  tragedy  is  no  sufficient  ground  for  its  intro- 
duction in  the  Church  or  its  substitution  in  place  of  the  sermon."  Much 
music  that  is  exquisitely  beautiful  could  not  be  called  Church  Music, 
and  has  no  place  in  the  Christian  Service.  Worship  must  be  first,  Art 
second. 

Further,  in  order  that  this  ideal  may  be  realized,  the  music  of  the 
Choir  must  be  liturgical.  By  this  we  mean  that  it  must  have  an  organic 
connection  with  the  Service  as  such.  As  soon  as  it  assumes  the  form 
of  an  independent  art  work  it  severs  itself  from  the  Minister  and  the 
Congregation,  and  indeed  from  the  Service  itself.  We  believe  with 
Schoeberlein  that  "the  true  view  of  Church  Music  is  to  be  had  only 
through  the  door  of  the  Liturgy."  These  two.  Church  Music  and  Lit- 
urgy,  are  mutually  dependent,  related  to  each  other  "as  plant  and 
bloom."  The  Liturgy  is  the  plant,  striking  its  roots  deep  into  the  faith 
of  the  Church  as  contained  in  the  Word  of  God.  It  finds  its  highest 
development  and  most  perfect  expression  in  the  flower  which  springs  by 
divine  law  from  its  own  organic  life.  Church  Music.  This  beautiful  blos- 
som maturing  under  the  tender  care  of  the  Church,  sends  forth  the  ripe 
fruit  of  a  perfected  art  form,  at  once  artistic  and  distinctively  spiritual, 
which  bears  within  itself  the  precious  seeds  of  Christian  faith  which 
will  lodge  and  spring  up  into  further  life  wherever  the  breath  of  the 
Spirit   may   waft   them.     The   developing   Liturgy   of   the    Early    Church 


i6 

found  its  expression  in  the  Gregorian  Chant  and  the  latter  in  the  hands 
of   St.    Augustine,    Boniface   and   other   missionaries   was   the   means    of 
introducing  the  faith  of  Christianity  and  of  uniting  the  scattered  bodies 
of  converts  with  the  whole   Church  in  thought  and  fact.     The   restored 
truth  of  Reformation  times  appeared  in  versified  arrangements  of  parti 
of    the    Liturgy    and    in    independent    Hymns.     These    found    their    true 
and  adequate  expression  and  obtained  their  marvelous  dissemination  in 
the  noble  melodies  of  the  Chorale.     And  all  Church  Music  to-day,  worthy 
of  the  name,  must  be  distinctively  liturgical — a  direct  outgrowth  of  some 
part  of  the  Service  itself,  or  of  some  thought  of  the  day  or  season  of  the 
Church,  some  precious  portion  of  the  faith,  not  of  the  individual  com- 
poser, but  of  the  Church  as  a  whole.     We  quite  agree  with  Mr.  Edward 
Dickinson  that  "musical  reform  in  the  Congregational  and  Presbyterian 
Churches  is  most  difficult,   simply  because  they  have  no  liturgical   style 
or    school    of   composition."    while    Ritter,    with    reference   to   these    same 
Protestant  Communions  that  have  thrown  away  all   regard  for   historic 
liturgical   principles   and   practices,    says   that  for   these   "Church    Music, 
in  the  sense  of  appropriate  art-music,  has  no  future."     The  logical. de- 
velopment of  the  isolated,   sacrificial,   temporary  and  arbitrary  character 
of  the  worship  of  these  Communions  is  to  make  their  service  simply  a 
human   gathering  for   religious   purposes,    a   "meeting";   the   sermon   be- 
comes a  scholarly  essay  on  a  religious  or  moral  theme,   or  perhaps  a 
"lecture"   on   some   timely   topic;    while   the   music   cannot   possibly   rise 
above  the  level  of  a  "sacred  concert."     The  true  principle  of  the  liturgical 
unity  and  completeness  of  every  Service  as  a  sacramental-sacrificial  trans- 
action between  God  and  man  must  be  clearly  apprehended  if  we  would 
conserve  the  true  welfare  of  our  Church  Music,  especially  as  it  relates  to 
the  Choir.     In  this  conception  of  the  Service,  the  Gospel,  as  related  to 
the  broader  thought  of  the  particular   part  of  the   Church   Year,   must 
furnish  the  controlling  theme.     To   the  elucidation   and  development  of 
this  the  variable  parts  of  the  Liturgy,  the  Hymns  and  the  Sermon  con- 
tribute.    The  noble  models  of  Church  Music  for  the  Choir  found  in  the 
a   capella   compositions   of    Palestrina,    Lasso,  Vitorria,    Eccard,    Hassler, 
Praetorius  and  Schuetz  are  models  not  only  because  of  their  artistic  beauty 
and  lofty  spirituality,  but  because  of  their  pure  liturgical  feeling.     They 
seem  to  be  organic  developments  of  the  very  Service  itself.     The  Anthem, 
which,  in  its  present  form  as  the  distinctive  contribution  of  the  English 
Church  to  Church  Music,  has  established  itself  firmly  in  the  affections  of 
most  of  our  people,  too  often  bears  the  character  of  independence  and 
subjectivity.     It   might   be   interesting   to   inquire   as   to   the   relative    re- 
sponsibility for  the  unsatisfactory  character   of  many  of  these   composi- 
tions that  should  be  borne  by  several  factors,  among  them  the  striving 
for  dramatic   effect,    the   increasing   opportunities   for   the   mere   display 
of  vocal   virtuosity,    the    growing   indifference   to   the    rightful   claims   of 
the  text  for  pre-eminence,  and  the  prominence  accorded  the  Organ  as  an 
independent  factor. 

Emil  Nauman  (Ouseley)  says,  "The  great  works  of  the  great  masters 
of  sacred  music,  whether  Catholic  or  Protestant  .  .  .  would  never  have 
been  called  into  existence  had  their  authors  been  limited  to  an  organ 


17 

accompaniment,"  and  we  recall  the  words  of  Richard  Wagner,  who, 
though  commanding  the  resources  of  every  art  as  none  before  him  in 
his  own  marvelous  Music  Dramas,  said,  "If  Church  Music  is  to  be  again 
restored  to  its  original  purity,  vocal  music  must  again  alone  represent 
it."  But  at  all  events,  with  conditions  as  they  are,  with  especial  reference 
to  the  sphere  of  the  Choir,  our  choice  of  Anthems  and  all  distinctive!} 
Choir  music  must  be  guided  not  only  by  regard  for  purity  of  content  and 
form,  but  with  especial  concern  for  liturgical  unity  and  coherence.  Not 
any  well  written  composition  upon  Scripture  text  will  suffice.  Unless 
it  exactly  harmonize  with  the  thought  of  the  particular  Service,  it  will 
be  a  distracting,  extraneous  element  for  whose  presence  in  the  Service 
there  is  no  excuse  or  justification. 
In  recapitulation  we  may  state: 

1.  We  regard  the  Choir  not  as  a  body  semi-priestly  in  character, 
performing  delegated  functions  of  the  Congregation;  nor  as  an  artistic 
intruder  into  the  worship  of  believers;  but  as  an  organic  factor  in  the  ideal 
Christian  Service. 

2.  Though  leading  the  Congregation  in  Hymns  and  Responses, 
though  in  all  its  efforts  using  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit  for  the  mutual  edi- 
fication of  all  worshipers,  its  especial  function  is  to  sound  the  voice  of 
the  Church  Universal  in  the  local  Congregation,  and  to  impress  upon  the 
latter  the  thought  of  its  organic  connection  with  all  believers. 

3.  Its  true  sphere  is  further  defined  by  its  effort  to  elucidate  the 
essential,  organic  unity  and  completeness  of  each  individual  Service,  and 
consequently  in  the  selection  of  its  distinctive  music,  one  must  be  guided 
not  only  by  regard  for  purity  and  "churchliness"  of  style,  but  first  of  all  by 
principles  of  liturgical  unity. 


The  Idea  Underlying  the  Lutheran 
Main  Service. 


BY  PROF.  A.  SPAETH,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


For  a  proper  understanding  and  appreciation  of  the  subject  before  us, 
we  must  first  of  all  remember  the  great  principles  which  were  at  stake  in 
the  conflict  of  the  Reformation  era.  The  question  is  concerning  faith  and 
works,  God's  act  and  man's  act,  that  which  is  from  above,  and  that  which 
is  from  below  in  the  relation  between  God  and  man.  The  healthy  com- 
munion between  God  and  man  must  rest  on  the  proper  relation  and  pro- 
portion of  these  two  factors.  There  is  a  constant  reciprocity :  God  gives, 
man  receives;  and  having  received  the  blessing  of  God,  man  gives  what  he 
is  able  to  offer  to  his  God,  the  sacrifice  of  a  pure  and  reasonable  service. 
But  this  latter  is  altogether  based  upon  the  former.  That  which  establishes 
and  preserves  the  communion  between  God  and  man,  that  which  provides, 
appropriates  and  seals  our  salvation  is  altogether  the  gift  and  act  of  God, 
the  ordinance  and  testament  of  God.  This  principle  being  true  of  every 
true  and  healthy  communion  between  God  and  man,  must  also  be  true  of 
the  service  or  cultus  of  the  congregation  through  which  such  communion 
is  produced,  nourished  and  preserved.  The  Church  is  the  assembly  of  true 
believers,  the  congregation  of  saints  in  which  the  Gospel  is  rightly  taught 
and  the  sacraments  rightly  administered  (Augsb.  Confess.,  Art.  7).  These 
things  make  and  mark  the  true  Church.  They  must  likewise  make  and 
mark  the  true  service  of  the  true  Church.  The  true  service  is  where  the 
Word  of  God  and  the  sacraments  are  properly  used  and  administered. 

Now,  all  the  gifts  of  God,  and  all  His  acts  toward  our  salvation,  cul- 
minate in  the  unspeakable  gift  of  His  Son.  And  the  gift  of  His  Son 
culminates  in  His  propitiatory  sacrifice  on  Calvary,  where  God  set  Him 
forth  to  be  a  propitiation  through  faith  in  His  blood.  This  New  Testa- 
ment of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  is  most  beautifully  and  perfectly  com- 
prehended, offered,  appropriated  and  enjoyed  in  the  sacrament  of  the  altar. 
The  Lord's  Supper,  not  as  a  work  or  performance  of  man,  but  as  the  very 
heart  and  height  of  all  the  saving  gifts  and  acts  of  God,  is  therefore  the 
real  center  of  Christian  worship.  Everything  else  is  grouped  around  this 
point,  and  leads  up  to  it.  Thus  it  was  already  in  the  Apostolic  Church. 
And  thus  it  remained  throughout  the  Middle  Ages,  at  least  in  the  formal 
arrangement  of  the  service.  But  it  must  be  said  that  the  spirit  and  nature 
of  the  service  in  the  medieval  Church  had  changed  into  something  vastly 
different  from  the  Apostolic  and  early  Christian  conception.  The  act  of 
God  had  to  give  way  to  the  act  of  man.  The  principal  feature  in  the  ser- 
vice was  now  the  work  of  man,  the  human  performance,  the  sacrificial  act 

(19) 


20 

in  the  offerings  which  man  brought  to  his  God.  Even  the  New  Testament 
sacrament  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  has  ceased  to  be  the  act,  the  gift 
and  ordinance  of  God,  it  is  turned  into  a  human  work  and  performance, 
something  offered  by  man  in  order  to  gain  the  good  will  of  God,  to  secure 
reconciliation  with  Him.  As  early  as  1520  Luther  protested  most  em- 
phatically against  this  perversion  of  the  true  service,  in  his  "Sermon  von 
dem  Neuen  Testament"  (Sermon  on  the  Lord's  Supper)  :  "The  sacrament 
of  the  altar  (Mass)  is  not  a  sacrifice  which  man  offers  to  God,  but  a  testa- 
ment by  which  the  Lord  promises  and  conveys  to  us  an  unspeakable 
treasure,  the  forgiveness  of  sins." 

In  accordance  with  this  fundamental  principle  our  Lutheran  order  of 
service  correctly  conceived  and  consistently  carried  through  the  idea  of  our 
communion  with  God.  It  is  established,  preserved  and  nourished  by  what 
God  offers  and  conveys  to  us  in  the  Word  and  the  sacrament.  And  our 
main  service  culminates  in  the  Holy  Communion,  by  which  God's  grace  in 
Jesus  Christ  is  sealed  unto  us. 

From  this  point  of  view  we  must  consider  the  different  parts  of  the 
main  service  as  they  follow  each  other  in  most  beautiful  order.  There  we 
find  in  full  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  Scripture,  and  almost  throughout  in 
the  very  words  of  Scripture,  those  two  elements  of  true  service  combined, 
the  sacramental,  viz.,  that  which  comes  from  God,  as  His  gift,  ordinance 
and  testament,  and  the  sacrificial,  viz.,  that  which  comes  from  man,  as  his 
own  offering,  in  confession,  prayer,  praise  and  thanksgiving.  There  is 
presented  to  us  in  the  most  vivid,  we  might  almost  say,  dramatic  manner, 
the  whole  plan  of  God's  salvation,  including  everything  that  He  has  done 
and  provided  for  our  redemption,  and  the  wonderful  riches  of  Christian 
experience,  from  the  depths  of  the  Confiteor  (confession  of  sins)  to  the 
blessed  height  of  the  Nunc  Dimittis — Lord,  now  lettest  Thou  Thy  servant 
depart  in  peace! 

The  service  opens  with  the  Confiteor,  the  confession  of  sins.  It  is  our 
purpose  to  draw  near  to  the  Holy  One.  But  we  ourselves  are  unholy  and 
full  of  sin.  Therefore  those  opening  versicles,  with  the  declaration,  "I 
said,  I  will  confess  my  transgressions  unto  the  Lord,"  and  the  hopeful, 
confident  looking  forward  to  the  divine  act  of  forgiveness  which  we  have 
so  often  experienced,  "And  Thou  forgavest  the  iniquity  of  my  sin."  The 
confession  of  sin  is  followed  by  the  declaration  of  God's  mercy,  in  the 
words  of  absolution,  "Almighty  God,  our  heavenly  Father,  hath  had  mercy 
upon  us,  and  given  His  only  Son  to  die  for  us,  and  for  His  sake  iorgiveth 
us  all  our  sins."  Here  already  the  last  and  final  aim  is  set  before  us,  to  be 
"saved."  But  it  stands  here  not  yet  as  the  consummate  act  of  God,  but 
as  the  object  of  our  earnest,  believing  prayer,  "Grant  this,  O  Lord,  unto  us 
all," — the  sacramental  act  of  God's  saving  mercy,  embraced  by  the  sacrificial 
act  of  human  prayer. 

Thus  far  the  preparatory  part  of  our  service,  which  is  not  found  in  all 
the  Lutheran  orders  of  the  Reformation  time.  But  now  the  real  beginning 
of  the  service  of  the  respective  Sunday  or  festival  day  is  made  with  the 
Introit,  striking  the  proper  chord  for  the  day  and  its  peculiar  message  in 
the  words  of  the  Psalm  of  which  it  is  composed.  Many  Sundays  in  the 
Church  year  have  their  traditional  names  in  the  almanac  from  the  opening 


21 

words  of  their  Latin  Introit,  such  as  Invocavit,  Reminiscere,  Oculi,  Laetare, 
Judica.  There  is  a  singular  and  beautiful  coincidence  in  the  names  of  the 
first  four  Sundays  after  Easter,  forming  a  striking  Latin  sentence  which 
echoes  the  full  Easter  joy  of  the  Church:  "Quasimodogeniti  Misericordias 
Domini  Jubilate,  Cantate !  (As  the  new  born  babes  shout  and  sing  the 
mercies  of  the  Lord.)  The  words  of  the  Psalm  used  in  the  Introit  always 
close  with  the  Gloria  Patri  (Glory  be  to  the  Father,  etc.),  which  is  to  be 
taken,  not  so  much  as  an  expression  of  our  praise  and  thanksgiving,  but 
rather  as  a  confession  of  the  Trinitarian  faith  of  the  Christian  Church, 
in  distinction  from  the  Old  Testament  use  of  the  Psalms  in  the  synagogue. 
The  Gloria  Patri,  therefore,  is  properly  used  at  this  point,  even  during  the 
solemn  season  of  Lent. 

Cleansed  from  our  sins,  and  the  heaviest  burden  taken  off  from  our 
conscience,  we  have  thus  entered  upon  the  service  of  the  Lord's  Day  with  a 
joyful  heart,  in  the  Introit  of  the  day.  But  there  are  still  other  burdens  to 
be  taken  off,  to  make  us  perfectly  free  and  cheerful  to  enjoy  the  day  which 
the  Lord  hath  made.  We  have  just  passed  through  another  week  of  toil 
and  labor,  with  its  cares  and  sorrow,  and  we  have  before  us  the  new  week 
which  is  sure  to  bring  similar  trials.  We  therefore  lift  up  our  eyes  and 
our  hearts  to.  the  Triune  God,  praying  that  He  should  mercifully  deliver 
us  from  all  evil  of  body  and  soul,  present  and  future.  We  cry  in  the 
Kyrie,  "Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us !  Christ,  have  mercy  upon  us !  Lord, 
have  mercy  upon  us !" 

Now  we  are  ready  to  praise,  magnify  and  worship  the  God  of  our  sal- 
vation from  the  very  depth  of  our  heart.  The  angelic  hymn  of  the  Gloria 
in  Excelsis  bursts  forth,  that  hymn  "which  was  not  made  on  earth,  but  came 
down  from  heaven"  (Luther).  In  this  song  of  songs  we  have  the  grandest 
summary  of  all  that  the  mouth  of  mortal  man  may  sing  and  say  to  the 
praise  of  God's  glory  as  it  is  revealed  in  the  incarnation  of  the  only  begotten 
Son  of  the  Father. 

Thus  far  the  sacrificial  character  predominated  in  the  service — confes- 
sion, adoration,  praise  and  thanksgiving  on  the  part  of  man.  Henceforth 
the  sacramental  side  becomes  more  prominent,  God's  own  work  through  the 
Word  and  the  sacrament,  though  the  sacrificial  is  constantly  interwoven. 
We  prepare  ourselves  to  hear  the  voice  of  the  Lord  in  His  holy  Word. 
But  its  first  reading  is  preceded  by  a  short  prayer,  the  Collect,  which  is  in- 
troduced by  the  Salutation,  pastor  and  congregation  blessing  each  other 
mutually  with  these  ancient  Scripture  words,  "The  Lord  be  with  you.  And 
with  thy  spirit."  Then  they  offer  before  the  throne  of  the  divine  Majesty 
that  brief,  comprehensive  prayer,  called  the  Collect — "A  breath  of  the  soul 
sprinkled  with  the  blood  of  Jesus,  offered  up  to  the  Eternal  Father  in  the 
name  of  His  Son." 

Now  follows  the  Word,  first,  as  the  Holy  Ghost  spake  it  through  the 
blessed  Apostles  in  their  letters  to  their  congregations — the  Epistle.  There 
can  hardly  be  any  doubt  that  in  the  history  of  the  New  Testament  itself 
this  was  chronologically  the  first  and  earliest  form  in  which  any  literature 
of  the  New  Testament  was  .to  be  found.  The  congregation  responds  with 
the  Hallelujah,  "The  voice  that  must  never  be  silent  in  the  Church,"  as 
Luther  says.     It  may  be  enlarged  by  sentences  from  the  Scriptures,  espe- 


22 

daily  the  Psalms.  And  here  is  the  proper  place  for  the  so-called  Gradual, 
a  good,  substantial  anthem  of  the  choir,  of  strictly  churchly  character,  in 
organic  connection  with  the  character  and  spirit  of  the  day  that  is  cele- 
brated. Instead  of  this  the  congregation  may  sing  one  of  the  fixed,  tradi- 
tional hymns  of  a  strictly  objective  character,  such  as,  Lift  up  your  heads,  ye 
mighty  gates !  All  praise.  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  to  Thee.  Christ  the  Lord 
is  risen  again,  etc.  Now  only  we  hear  in  the  Gospel  of  the  day  the  voice 
of  the  Lord  Himself.  Ipsissima  Verba.  There  are  special  marks  of  dis- 
tinction for  the  Gospel,  over  against  the  Epistle.  The  congregation  rises, 
saluting  the  Lord  with  its  festive  "Glory  be  to  Thee,  O  Lord,"  and  re- 
turning its  special  thanks  for  the  hearing  of  the  Gospel  in  the  closing  vers- 
icle,  "Thanks  be  to  Thee,  O  Christ." 

The  Word  of  God  as  read  in  the  Epistle  and  the  Gospel  is  followed 
by  the  Creed,  the  confession  of  the  common  faith  of  Christendom.  In  the 
Word  God  Himself  has  been  speaking  to  us.  In  the  sermon  His  servant 
is  to  speak  to  us,  with  his  personal  testimony  of  the  saving  truth  as  it  re- 
flects itself  in  his  own  consciousness,  and  as  it  has  taken  shape  in  the  ex- 
perience of  his  own  life.  His  mission  is  to  explain  and  to  apply  the  Word 
that  has  been  heard  for  the  life  of  the  congregation  .and  for  the  time  in 
which  he  lives.  But  before  the  preacher  opens  his  mouth,  before  his  per- 
sonality is  brought  forward  in  the  sermon,  the  Church  has  first  to  speak 
her  word  in  her  historic  Creed,  the  testimony  of  her  faith,  showing  how, 
from  the  very  beginning,  she  has  understood  and  received  the  word  of  the 
Gospel.  The  preacher  is  a  member  and  a  minister  of  the  Church.  Her 
faith  is  his  faith,  her  doctrine  his  doctrine.  He  is  not  to  give  his  own 
thoughts  in  distinction  from,  or  possibly  even  in  antagonism  to  what  the 
Church  holds  and  believes,  but  the  common  faith  as  personified  and  em- 
bodied in  his  own  gifts  and  experience.  The  Sermon  is  under  the  Creed, 
the  Creed  under  the  Word.  Sacramental  and  sacrificial  features  are  com- 
bined in  the  sermon.  All  exposition  and  application  of  the  Divine  Word 
in  the  sermon  is  a  sacramental  act  in  the  sen-ice.  But  there  is  at  the  same 
time  a  sacrificial  side  to  the  sermon.  It  is  the  solemn,  joyful  testimony  of 
the  congregation  of  what  God  in  His  mercy  has  done  for  it,  proclaimed 
through  its  official  speaker. 

The  congregation  responds  to  the  sermon  in  the  Psalm  words  of  the 
Offertory,  expressing  the  unreserved  surrender  of  the  heart  to  the  service 
of  the  living  God,  while  at  the  same  time  the  offerings  of  the  Church  are 
gathered,  and  deposited  on  the  altar. 

The  General  Prayer  which  follows  is,  in  a  special  sense,  a  sacrificial 
act  of  the  congregation.  There  the  Church  appears  before  the  throne  of 
God  as  an  assembly  of  spiritual  priests,  making  intercession  for  all  the  es- 
tates, conditions  and  needs  of  mankind.  Her  words  of  prayer  culminate 
in  the  Lord's  Prayer,  uniting  all  believers  as  children  of  the  Father  in 
heaven,  and  brethren. 

And  now  we  have  reached  the  height  and  center  of  the  whole  main 
service,  the  Communio,  in  the  stricter  sense  of  the  word,  the  celebration  of 
the  Lord's  Supper.  It  is  introduced  by  the  sacrificial  act  of  the  Preface, 
breathing  the  spirit  of  thanksgiving  and  adoration..  The  great  funda- 
mental facts  of  redemption  are  set  forth  in  the  concise  and  stately  Ian- 


23 

guage  of  the  special  prefaces  for  Christmas,  Passion  Season,  Easter,  As- 
cension Day,  Whitsunday  and  the  festival  of  the  Trinity.  This  introduc- 
tory part  of  the  communion  closes  with  the  Trishagion  (Holy,  Holy  Holy) 
of  the  Sanctus,  to  which  are  added  the  Benedictus  and  Hosanna.  The 
Lord  is  coming  to  His  Church  in  the  sacrament  of  His  body  and  His  blood, 
and  she  greets  Him  and  meets  Him  with  her  song  of  homage,  in  which  the 
Old  and  the  New  Testament  are  blending  most  beautifully.  This  is  im- 
mediately followed  by  the  act  of  Consecration,  setting  apart  the  earthly 
elements  for  their  sacramental  use.  The  Exhortation,  however  beautiful 
and  edifying  it  is,  ought  not  to  interrupt  the  course  of  the  sacramental  ser- 
vice, with  its  homiletical  tone.  We  would  rather  recommend  it  for  the 
private  reading  of  the  Communicants  themselves.  As  every  crea- 
ture of  God  is  sanctified  by  the  Word  of  God  and  prayer,  so  it  is  to  be  also 
with  the  earthly  elements  that  are  to  be  used  in  the  sacrament  of  the  altar. 
The  prayer  used  at  this  point  is  the  Lord's  Prayer.  The  Word  cannot  be 
anything  else  but  the  Verba  Institutionis,  the  words  of  the  institution.  Then 
follows  the  Agnus  Dei,  (O  Christ,  Thou  Lamb  of  God)  the  most 
appropriate  song  of  the  congregation,  with  which  the  communicants  prepare 
themselves  to  approach  the  table  of  the  Lord.  There  they  reach  forth  their 
hands  to  receive  the  grace  and  peace  of  God  through  the  Lamb  that  is  given 
for  our  transgressions.  The  song  of  the  Agnus  finds  its  echo  in  the  Pax 
(The  peace  of  the  Lord  be  with  you  alway).  Here  is,  as  Luther  says,  "noth- 
ing but  the  pure  Gospel,  proclaiming  forgiveness  of  sins,  the  only  proper 
and  worthy  preparation  for  the  table  of  the  Lord,  if  it  be  apprehended  in 

true  faith."     (Vox  plane  Evangelica unica  ilia  et  dignissima  ad  mensam 

Domini  preparatio.) 

Then  the  Distribution,  with  the  simple  announcement  of  the  redemption 
which  Christ  has  wrought  for  us  on  the  cross.  The  words  ought  not  to 
be  changed  but  constantly  repeated,  "The  body  of  Christ,  given  for  thee; 
the  blood  of  the  New  Testament  shed  for  thy  sins." 

Higher  than  this  we  cannot  rise  in  this  present  life  in  our  communion 
with  God.  Here  is  the  most  real  and  perfect  union  with  our  God  and 
Saviour.  His  life  and  salvation,  His  grace  and  peace  are  sealed  to  us  in  the 
testament  of  His  body  and  blood.  We  therefore  make  the  conclusion  with 
the  parting  song  of  old  Simeon,  the  Nunc  Dimittis,  Lord,  now  lettest  Thou 
Thy  servant  depart  in  peace,  followed  by  a  brief  Collect  of  thanksgiving 
and  the  Benediction.  It  was  peace  in  the  last  words  of  the  Agnus,  peace  in 
the  Pax,  peace  in  the  opening  words  of  the  Nunc  Dimittis,  and  peace  in 
the  last  words  of  the  Aaronitic  benediction.  This  is  the  aim  and  end  of  our 
whole  service.  But  this  peace,  not  as  a  superficial,  passing  emotion,  but  in 
the  realistic  and  comprehensive,  scriptural  meaning  of  the  word,  including 
perfect  well-being,  reconcilation  and  union  with  God,  forgiveness,  life  and 
salvation. 

Thus  the  dream  vision  of  the  patriarch,  Jacob's  ladder,  becomes  a  living 
reality  in  our  service.  The  angels  of  God  are  ascending  and  descending, 
God's  messengers  and  greetings  to  us  in  His  Word  and  sacrament;  our  mes- 
sengers to  God  in  our  prayers,  confessions  and  thanksgiving.  Here  is,  in 
truth,  the  gate  of  heaven,  and  we  wait  for  the  angel  that  is  to  carry  us  home 
to  the  heavenly  mansions. 


What  Is  Church  Music? 


BY  PROF.  A.  SPAETH,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


During  the  last  fifty  years  the  Lutheran  Church  of  this  country  may 
be  said  to  have  been  in  a  steady  process  of  recovery,  finding  herself  again 
with  all  the  treasures  that  had  been  her  inheritance  since  the  days  of  the 
great  Reformation.  She  had,  indeed,  wandered  away  from  her  Father's 
house  where  there  was  bread  enough  and  to  spare.  She  was  begging  for 
bread  at  the  door  of  strangers,  and  perishing  with  hunger.  But  at  last  the 
time  came  when  she  said,  "I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  Father, — to  the  Rock 
from  which  I  was  hewn."  And  so  she  returned  to  the  same  experience 
which  the  reckless  and  deluded  son  in  the  parable  made  when  he  came  home 
to  the  fatted  calf,  the  best  robe,  the  ring  and  the  shoes,  the  feast  and  the 
music.  Thus  our  dear  Church,  in  the  time  of  her  gracious  revival,  returned 
to  the  sound,  substantial  Gospel  doctrine  of  the  fathers  and  to  the  beauti- 
ful robe  of  her  glorious  service — and  now  she  is  looking  around  for  the 
harp,  and  beginning  to  tune  it,  and  to  clear  her  voice  for  the  new  song 
which  the  Lord  has  put  into  her  mouth, — the  new  song  that  is,  indeed,  the 
old  song  which  her  fathers  knew  so  well,  and  which  she  had  forgotten. 
When  for  the  first  time  the  solidity,  grandeur  and  earnestness  of  our  Church 
Music  was  exhibited  before  the  General  Council,  in  that  beautiful  Choral 
Vesper,  given  in  Philadelphia,  in  1885,  Dr.  Jacobs  was  moved  to  write  the 
following  words  with  reference  to  it:  "As  Lutheranism  manifests  its  dis- 
tinctive characteristics,  not  in  a  few  points  of  doctrine,  as  some  think,  but 
pervades  the  whole  system,  and  gives  a  different  cast  and  shading  to  those 
doctrines  in  which  there  may  be  a  superficial  agreement  with  others ;  as  it 
enters  the  domain  of  Ethics  and  treats  questions  of  morality  from  a  dif- 
ferent standpoint ;  as  it  has  a  mode  of  preaching  and  service  peculiarly  its 
own,  as  the  natural  utterance  of  its  own  distinctive  life,  so  also  with  its 
music,  the  language  of  impassioned  thought  and  feeling.  How  inconsistent 
with  a  service  rendered  in  such  music  would  be  many  of  the  errors  and 
abuses  which  at  times  have  led  our  people  astray  V  But  having  now  become 
fully  conscious  again  of  her  position  in  the  history  of  God's  kingdom,  her 
scriptural  confession,  her  pure,  historic  Service,  her  treasures  of  inspiring 
hymns,  it  is  time  for  her  to  take  up  the  question  "What  is  Church  Music, 
as  we  understand  it?  the  music  of  the  Mother  Church  of  the  Reformation?" 
And  having  found  the  correct  answer  in  theory,  let  us  have  the  courage 
to  put  the  theory  into  practice,  and  to  enter  again  into  full  possession 
and  use  of  those  precious  and  inexhaustible  treasures  which  are  stored 
in  our  Cantionales  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries. 

To  us  Lutherans  there  is  certainly  no  antagonism  between  those  two 
terms,  Church  and  Music.     We  do  not  agree  with  the  godly  Quaker  who 

<»3) 


26 

once  asked  me,  in  a  tone  of  defiance  and  condemnation,  ''What  has  a  Chris- 
tian to  do  with  music?"     We  rather  find  that  the  Church  and  Music  belong 
together  in  beautiful  harmony.     Even  if  we  should  not  be  quite  ready  to 
hold  with  Matthias  Claudius,    (the  "Wandsbecker  Bote"),  that  "All  art 
starts  from  the  Altar,"  we  certainly  have  no  hesitation  in  affirming  with 
Martin  Luther,  "That  the  Gospel  does  not  set  itself  against  the  arts,  nor 
tend  to  abolish  them,  as  some  hyper-spiritual  men  pretend,  but  rather  that  all 
arts,  particularly  music,  should  be  in  the  service  of  Him  who  has  given 
and  created  them."     Those  silent  arts  of  painting,  architecture  and  sculp- 
ture may  indeed  do  their  share  in  beautifying  and  hallowing  our  places  of 
worship,  but  music  enters  into  much  closer,  much  more  living  and  active 
union  with  the  service  of  the  Church.     That  service  is  the  actual   inter- 
communion between  God  and  man.     Such  intercourse  and  communion  is 
not  one  of  silent  meditation,  leaving  each  individual  member  to  himself. 
It  is  carried  on  by  means  of  the  Word, — God's  own  Word  addressed  to  man. 
with  all  its  solemn  warning,  admonition,   rebuke,  threatening,  and  all  its 
blessed   consolation,    speaking   peace   to   the    troubled   heart,    offering   and 
conveying  forgiveness  of  sins,  life  and  salvation.     And  it  is  man's  word 
addressed  to  God, — praising  Him,  blessing  Him,  worshipping  Him,  glori- 
fying  Him,   giving  thanks   to   Him   for   His   great  glory,   in   the  jubilant 
strains  of  our  Glorias,  and  Te  Deums,  and  Hallelujahs  and  again  praying 
to  Him,  crying  to  Him  out  of  the  depth,  confessing  our  guilt,  our  misery, 
beseeching  Him  to  hear  us  and  to  help  us,  in  our  Kyries,  our  Litanies,  our 
Suffrages  and  Collects. 

Now  all  those  words, — the  sacramental   words  of  God  addressed  to 
man,  and  the  sacrificial  words  of  man  addressed  to  God,  may,  of  course, 
be  simply  recited,  spoken  by  the  pastor  and  the  congregation,  and  they  would 
still  be  the  essential  organs  to  establish  and  to  exhibit  that  intercourse  be- 
tween God  and  man  which  we  call  worship.     But  it  needs  no  argument  to 
prove  how  much  the  word  may  be  beautified  and  enhanced,  its  weight  and 
force  be  strengthened,  its  impressions  deepened,  by  the  sound  of  appropriate 
music  in  which  it  is  expressed.     Music  that  is  true  to  the  word  to  which  it 
is  joined  brings  out  the  very  soul  of  that  word.     And  when  the  whole  multi- 
tude of  believers,  assembled  for  worship  in  the  house  of  God,  is  to  join 
in  any  part  of  the  service,   whenever  there  are  words  which  they  ought 
to  say  together,   as  a  congregation,   with  one  heart   and   one  mouth,   the 
musical  form  is  undoubtedly  the  most  satisfactory  for  such  common  united 
utterance.     However  well  trained  a  congregation  may  be  to  speak  together, 
all  such  common  recitations  will  be  lame  and  unsesthetic  compared  with  the 
grand  unison  of  song  in  which  the  Amens,  the  Hallelujahs,  the  Kyries,  the 
Psalms  and  Prayers  and  Hymns  burst  forth  from  the  lips  of  hundreds  of 
devout  worshipers. 

With  these  introductory  remarks  we  have  actually  already  indicated  all 
the  essential  features  of  what  is  properly  to  be  called  Church  Music.  It 
is  worship  set  in  music.  Service  Music,  liturgical  music,  not  concert  music. 
though  it  be  a  sacred  concert  in  the  true  and  full  sense  of  the  word.  As 
Dr.  Ohl  said  of  the  Choral  Service  above  referred  to,  "No  one  could  es- 
cape the  overpowering  impression  that  this  was  pure  worship-music, 
music-  free  from  secular  suggestions,  music  that  can  be  used  only  in  the 


27 

service  of  the  Church  and  for  no  other  purpose,  music  that  begets  devotion 
where  devotion  does  not  exist."  Where  there  is  no  organic  connection 
let  ween  the  service  of  the  congregation  and  the  music  rendered  in  the 
Church,  that  music  cannot  justly  claim  the  name  Church  Music.  The  Arias, 
Duos.  Quartettes,  Choruses  of  elaborate  Cantatas  or  Oratorios,  with  all  their 
beauty,  have  their  proper  place  in  the  sacred  concert  rather  than  in  the 
service  of  the  congregation.  This  brings  us  to  the  second  feature  which  we 
deem  essential  in  our  definition  of  Church  Music.  It  must  essentially  be 
Congregational  Music.  The  art  which  it  introduces  and  employs  must, 
after  all,  be  of  such  a  character  that  it  can  be  fully  appreciated,  appro- 
priated and  executed  by  the  congregation  itself.  It  must  not  be  the  con- 
gregation listening  to  and  entertained  by  artistic  performances  of  profes- 
sionals, but  the  congregation  aided,  lifted  up  and  edified  by  a  musical 
art  which  identifies  itself  with  the  spirit  of  the  service  of  the  Church,  an 
art  that  does  not  come  in  for  show  and  display,  but  to  serve,  an  art  that  is 
within  reach  of  the  congregation  itself.  This  point,  I  think,  can  be  and 
ought  to  be  maintained,  even  if  we  advocate,  as  I  do,  the  regular  employ- 
ment of  a  choir  in  the  service  of  the  congregation.  But,  of  course,  the 
character  of  the  choir  itself  and  its  membership,  the  place  it  holds  in  the 
service,  the  music  it  renders,  will  have  to  be  governed  by  the  principle 
which  we  laid  down  that  Church  Music  must  essentially  be  congregational 
music.  In  close  connection  with  this  is  the  third  point  which  we  mean  to 
emphasize  in  our  definition  of  Church  Music.  It  will  appear  from  what  has 
been  said  before  that  true  Church  Music  must  be  primarily  and  essentially 
Vocal  Music.  The  Word  rules  in  the  service  of  the  Church.  And  the  use 
of  musical  art  in  the  house  of  God  must  always  be  subservient  to  the  Word. 
Church  Music  is  song  music,  not  instrumental  music.  The  development  of 
instrumentalism  in  modern  music  has  certainly  not  been  helpful  to  the  pre- 
servation and  cultivation  of  true,  pure  Church  Music.  Its  influence  has 
rather  been  in  the  opposite  direction.  In  making  this  statement  as  strongly 
and  emphatically  as  it  can  be  made,  I  do  not  mean  to  exclude  the  instru- 
ment of  instruments,  the  Organ,  from  the  service  of  the  Church.  A  special 
paper  will  be  presented  at  this  convocation  on  the  independent  use  of  the 
Organ,  by  Dr.  Schmauk.  But  as  Lutherans  we  hold  that  the  proper  place 
for  the  Organ  is  in  supporting  the  congregational  singing.  And  I  may 
add  that  the  most  impressive  effect  of  the  Organ  at  certain  points  in  the 
service  is  its — Tacet.  Let  it  remain  silent  during  the  singing  of  the  Choir. 
Our  choirs  must  learn  again  to  sing  a  capella,  the  .only  style  of  choir  music 
for  which  our  best  and  earliest  masters  wrote !  And  even  in  our  congrega- 
tional singing  the  silence  of  the  Organ  will  be  found  to  be  of  great  solemnity 
and  impressiveness  at  certain  times,  for  instance  on  Good  Friday,  or  at  the 
singing  of  the  Agnus  in  the  communion  service. 

A  brief  historical  survey  of  the  development  of  Church  Music  will  help 
to  support  and  illustrate  the  principles  above  stated.  The  Jew  and  the 
Greek,  those  two  elements  which  presented  such  formidable  problems  to  the 
theology  and  life  of  the  ancient  Church,  also  represent  two  important  fac- 
tors in  the  development  of  Church  Music.  Israel  furnished  to  the  New  Tes- 
tament Church  the  first  hymn  book  and  the  first  tunes,  the  Psalms  and  the 
Psalmodv.     Hellas  contributed  the  popular  element,  with  its  inherent  dan- 


gers  of  worldliness  and  sensuousness.  The  chanting  of  the  Psalms,  as 
taken  from  the  Old  Testament  temple,  and,  later  on,  the  Synagogue  ser- 
vice, is  the  simplest  form  of  Church  Song,  solemn,  monotonous,  unadorned, 
merely  a  festive,  emphasized  recitation,  with  hardly  a  distinguishable 
melody,  no  rhythm,  no  harmony.  Later  on,  when  original  hymns,  in  Greek 
and  Latin,  of  remarkable  force  and  beauty,  were  added  to  the  Psalms  of 
the  Old  Testament  and  the  Canticles  of  the  New,  these  hymns,  as  a  matter 
of  course  demanded  other  musical  forms  for  their  proper  rendering,  dif- 
ferent from  the  Plain  Song  of  the  Psalm.  Ambrose  of  Milan  is  generally 
considered  as  the  prominent  leader  in  the  effort  to  supply  this  demand,  by 
adapting  secular  Greek  tunes  to  those  Christian  hymns.  Thus  the  ancient 
Church  Song  was  enlivened  and  enriched  by  the  introduction  of  rhyth- 
mical and  melodic  elements  which  had  hitherto  been  foreign  to  it.  And 
their  effectiveness  and  popularity  was  greatly  heightened  by  the  responsive 
or  antiphonal  mode  of  rendering  the  tunes.  But  the  great  danger  which  is 
inherent  in  all  similar  efforts  at  once  appeared  even  in  those  early  cen- 
turies of  the  history  of  Church  Song.  The  chaste  solemnity  and  sim- 
plicity of  ancient  Church  Song  was  lost.  The  world  got  the  better  of  the 
Church  in  those  popular  tunes,  and  the  result  was  a  lamentable  degener- 
ation. 

The  reaction  came  through  Gregory  the  Great,  and  it  was  relentless 
and  thorough-going  in  the  extreme.  It  was  the  restoration  of  plain,  stern 
psalmody,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  hymn,  the  popular  element  in  Church 
Song,  yea,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  laity,  the  congregation  itself,  from  all 
participation  in  singing  the  service  of  the  sanctuary.  The  clerical  choir 
of  the  priests  henceforth  monopolized  the  whole  service  of  song  (Cantus 
Choralis),  and  the  people  were  reduced  to  silent  listeners,  and  are  so  to 
the  present  day,  as  I  witnessed  in  listening  to  a  matin  service,  a  few  years 
ago,  in  St.  Peter's  Cathedral  in  Rome. 

The  natural  result  of  this  movement  was  that  what  the  people  were 
denied  in  the  Church  they  tried  to  find,  to  use  and  to  enjoy  outside  of  it. 
Popular  songs,  both  secular  and  sacred,  of  striking  power  and  beauty 
were  heard  at  the  festivals,  processions  and  pilgrimages.  I  refer  to  such 
songs  as  that  incomparable  "Christ  ist  erstanden"  (Christ  the  Lord  is 
Risen  Again),  which  for  four  long  centuries  was  knocking  at  the  Church 
door  and  waiting  to  be  admitted  into  the  sanctuary.  Their  time  came  at 
last  with  the  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century.  When  the  pure  Gospel 
was  restored  to  God's  people,  the  Lord  put  a  new  song  into  their  mouth. 
The  Church  once  more  became  the  congregation  of  believers  and  con- 
fessors. Her  service  became  the  service  of  the  people  themselves,  not  the 
vicarious  act  of  a  separate  order  of  mediating  priests.  There  was  now  at 
last  congregational  singing,  such  as  the  Church  had  probably  never  heard 
before,  not  even  in  the  first  centuries  of  her  history.  The  true  historical 
conservatism  of  the  Mother  Church  of  the  Reformation  manifested  itself 
also  in  this  field.  There  was  nothing  of  the  wild,  destructive  radicalism 
of  the  Swiss  Reformation,  headed  by  Zwingli,  who,  on  the  basis  of  Amos 
5:23  ("take  thou  away  from  Me  the  noise  of  thy  songs,  for  I  will  not  hear 
the  melody  of  thy  viols")  condemned  the  singing  of  the  service,  and  or- 
dered the  organs  to  be  removed.     (When  this  decree  of  vandalism  was 


29 

carried  out  in  Berne,  in  1528,  the  organist  asked  and  received  permission 
to  play  a  last  piece  on  his  doomed  instrument,  and  most  fittingly  selected 
that  striking  pre-Reformation  tune,  "O,  du  armer  Judas,  was  hast  du  ge- 
than?"  ending  with  a  plaintive  Kyrie  Eleison.)  In  justice  to  the  French 
and  German  Reformed  Churches,  however,  it  ought  to  be  stated  that  they 
kept  themselves  free  from  the  radicalism  of  their  Swiss  co-religionists. 
Calvin's  influence  was  one  of  moderation,  and  in  Geneva  much  attention 
was  given  to  the  singing  of  Psalms.  Claude  Goudimel's  name  is  illustri- 
ous in  this  connection,  and  some  of  the  tunes  collected,  edited  and  possibly 
composed  by  him  have  found  their  way  also  into  the  Lutheran  Church. 

But  in  a  peculiar  sense  the  reconstruction  and  sound  development  of 
Church  Music  was  the  charisma  of  the  Lutheran  Church  of  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries.  Our  great  leader  and  teacher,  Martin  Luther, 
was  himself  a  highly  gifted  musician  and  an  enthusiastic  lover  of  music. 
But  he  was  a  conservator  as  well  as  a  reformer  also  in  the  sphere  of 
Church  Music.  While  criticising  freely  the  abuses  and  defects  of  medieval 
Church  Music,  he  made  no  secret  of  the  high  esteem  in  which  he  held  the 
Cantus  Gregorianus.  He  was  anxious  that  it  should  be  retained  in  the 
service  of  the  Church.  And  though  he  was  fully  aware  of  the  formidable 
difficulties  that  were  in  the  way  of  adapting  German  texts  to  the  ancient 
Gregorian  music,  he  resolutely  undertook  that  work  himself  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  music  for  his  German  Mass,  1526.  He  set  the  whole  service 
to  Gregorian  music,  using  the  first  Tonus  for  the  Introit  Psalm,  the  eighth 
for  the  Epistle,  the  fifth  for  the  Gospel.  It  is  well  known  how  his  friend, 
cantor  Johann  Walther,  assisted  him  in  this  important  work  with  his  advice 
and  criticism,  and  how  he  admired  Luther's  "masterly  setting"  of  every 
part  of  the  service. 

Here,  then,  is  the  first  element  of  Lutheran  Church  Music,  the  precious 
legacy  of  the  Gregorian  tunes,  handed  down  from  the  pre-Reformation 
Church,  and  faithfully  preserved  with  Luther's  own  approval  and  recom- 
mendation:  "This  music  is  excellent,  and  it  would  be  a  pity  if  :t  should 
perish."  Wherever  the  Lutheran  Church  fully  appreciates  the  beautiful 
organism  of  her  service  in  which  she  preserves,  as  well  as  in  her  oecumeni- 
cal creeds,  her  historic  continuity  and  oneness  with  the  preceding  centuries, 
she  will  consistently  and  logically  be  led  back  to  Gregorian  music  as  the 
most  dignified  and  appropriate  musical  rendering  of  that  service.  But  in 
loyalty  to  the  evangelical  principles  of  the  Reformation,  especially  that  of 
the  spiritual  priesthood  of  all  believers,  she  cannot  and  ought  not  to  culti- 
vate and  employ  such  Gregorian  music  as  a  performance  of  the  choir,  to 
the  exclusion  of  the  congregation.  However  necessary  the  services  of  the 
choir  may  be  in  the  introduction  of  this  difficult  music,  and  also  in  its 
proper  antiphonal  rendering,  our  aim  must  always  be  the  participation  of 
the  whole  congregation  also*  in  this  particular  service,  and  we  dare  not, 
by  surrendering  it  to  the  choir  alone,  return  to  the  Gregorian  Chorus 
Clericus  of  priestly  or  professional  singers. 

But  the  most  important  and  far-reaching  influence  of  Luther's  musical 
genius  was  the  introduction  of  the  popular  hymns  and  tunes  ("Das  Geist- 
liche  Volkslied,  "  "Der  Choral")  into  the  service  of  the  Church.  When  he 
began  to  contemplate  the  reconstruction  of  the  service  he  at  once  expressed 


30 

his  great  anxiety  to  secure  good  scriptural,  heart  stirring  hymns.  "German 
Psalms,"  in  which  the  whole  congregation  might  join  in  a  grand  unison. 
"'It  is  my  intention,"  he  wrote,  to  Spalatin  in  1524,  "after  the  example  of 
the  Prophets  and  ancient  Fathers,  to  compose  German  Psalms  for.  the  people, 
that  is,  spiritual  songs  or  hymns,  so  that  the  Word  of  God  may  abide  among 
the  people  also  in  the  form  of  song.  We  are  looking  everywhere  fo."  poets." 
And  the  poets  came,  and  with  the  poetry  the  music  to  such  an  extent  that 
the  treasure  of  German  hymnody,  according  to  a  moderate  estimate,  at  the 
present  day  numbers  not  less  than  80,000  hymns  and  8.800  tunes  !  Luther 
is  the  father  of  congregational  church  song.  He  kindled  the  spirit  of  con- 
gregational singing  in  praise  of  the  restoration  of  the  pure  Gospel.  The 
hymns  were  springing  forth  like  living  fountains,  and  with  the  hymns  the 
tunes.  If  they  were  not  all  original,  they  were  all  intensely  popular,  sol- 
emn, deep  and  strong,  sanctified  by  the  spirit  of  true  devotion,  a  never- 
failing  source  of  power  and  blessing  to  the  Church  of  Christ.  So  strong 
was  the  determination  of  Luther  and  his  associates  to  popularize  the  music 
of  the  service  by  the  introduction  of  the  hymn  and  the  Choral,  that  we  are 
free  to  say  there  was  danger  of  going  to  an  extreme  in  this  respect.  For 
every  single  part  of  the  liturgical  service  a  substitute  in  metrical  form,  a 
hymn,  was  furnished,  so  that  all  the  responses  of  the  congregation  could 
be  made  in  hymn  form.  Thus  for  the  Introit  a  German  psalm,  that  is. 
an  opening  hymn,  might  be  substituted,  for  the  Kyrie  the  song,  "O  Lamm 
Gottes,  unschuldig,"  for  the  Gloria  in  Excelsis,  the  hymn,  "Allein  Gott  in 
der  Hoeh  sei  Ehr,"  for  the  Creed,  Luther's,  "Wir  glauben  all  an  Einen 
Gott,"  for  the  Sanctus  his  "Jesaia  dem  Propheten  das  geschah"  (German 
Mass,  1526).  Even  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Magnificat,  the  Nunc  Dimittis, 
were  all  to  be  had  in  hymn  form. 

In  addition  to  the  Gregorian  element  and  the  popular  Choral,  and,  to  a 
certain  extent,  as  a  combination  of  both,  there  is  yet  a  third  element  which 
became  quite  characteristic  of  the  Lutheran  Church  Music  of  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries.  I  refer  to  the  artistic  compositions  of  the  great 
masters  in  sacred  music,  with  their  elaborate  polyphonic  settings  and  figur- 
ated  chorals.  The  study  of  musical  harmony  and  the  art  of  contrapuntal 
writing  had  reached  a  high  state  of  technical  perfection  at  the  close  of  the 
fifteenth  and  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  Dutch  school  of 
composers  was  particularly  prominent  in  this  field.  Masters  like  Orlando 
di  Lasso,  Hobrecht,  Joquin  de  Pres  (Jodocus),  Ludwig  Senfl,  Johann  Wal- 
ther,  and  others,  deserve  to  be  remembered  in  this  connection.  Luther  him- 
self prized  this  form  of  music  most  highly,  and  wished  it  to  be  retained 
for  the  service  of  God's  house.  But  a  new  spiritual  life  was  infused  into 
this  art  by  the  introduction  of  the  popular  choral  tunes.  They  offered  the 
most  beautiful  and  suggestive  themes  to  be  harmonized,  elaborated,  en- 
larged and  developed  in  those  masterly  settings  of  men  like  Hassler, 
Schrceter,  Joachim  von  Burgk,  John  Eccard,  Melchior  Franck,  Prasetorius 
and  Heinrich  Schuetz,  who,  however,  already  represents  a  transition  to  the 
more  dramatic  oratorio  style  of  Bach  and  Handel.  In  the  combination  of 
these  three  elements,  the  Gregorian,  the  popular  Choral  and  the  artistic, 
figurated  settings  of  our  great  masters  we  have  such  a  rich  and  beautiful 
ensemble  of  true  and  pure  Church  Music  as  no  other  Church  possesses. 


3i 

And  well  might  Ludwig  Schceberlein,  who  gave  us  the  fullest  collection 
of  such  music  in  three  volumes  of  756,  996  and  1108  pages  respectively,  call 
it  a  treasure  or  storehouse  of  liturgical  and  congregational  song,  "Schatz 
des  Liturgischen  Chor  und  Gemeindegesangs,  nebst  den  Altarweisen  in  der 
deutschen  Evangelischen  Kirche,  aus  den  Quellen  vornehmlich  des  i6ten 
und  I7ten  Jahrhunderts  geschcepft."  (Gcettingen,  Vandenhceck  und  Rup- 
precht.) 

I  close  with  a  brief  summary  of  this  whole  subject  in  the  following 
points  : 

1.  Church  Music  is  Service  Music,  not  Concert  Music. 

2.  Church  Music  is  Congregational  [Music,  not  Choir  Music,  to  the 
exclusion  or  deprivation  of  the  congregation. 

3.  Church  Music  is  essentially  Vocal  Music,  not  instrumental. 

4.  The  three  chief  elements  of  Church  Music  are:  The  Recitative  in 
the  Gregorian;  the  Melodic  in  the  Choral:  the  Harmonic  in  the  Mottette, 
the  figured  settings  of  the  masters. 

5.  These  three  elements  ought  to  be  carefully  studied  by  all  lovers 
of  true  Church  Music,  especially  our  leaders  and  organists. 

6.  For  the  Mother  Church  of  the  Reformation  the  Choral  is  to  be 
considered  as  the  very  heart  and  center  of  her  Church  Music,  and  every 
reform,  especially  in  our  English  Lutheran  churches,  ought  to  begin  with 
the  restoration  of  the  rich  treasures  of  our  Chorals,  if  possible,  in  their 
original,  animated,  rhythmical  form. 


How  to  Secure  Good  Congregational 
Singing. 


BY  THE   REV.  R.  MORRIS    SMITH. 


One  is  almost  tempted  to  ask,  "Is  the  attainment  of  the  subject  within 
the  range  of  possibility?"  There  are  those  who  answer  this  question  with 
a  decided  No.  Others  admit  the  possibility  but  deny  the  probability.  Still 
others,  with  a  faith  that  stops  at  no  obstacles,  boldly  and  emphatically  an- 
swer Yes.     We  wish  to  be  enrolled  with  the  last  class. 

Good  congregational  singing  is  a  desideratum,  and  like  all  desiderata, 
results  only  from  constant  striving  for  the  goal.  It  is  attained,  nor  by  idly 
dreaming  of  its  desirability  and  beauty,  but  by  earnest,  conscientious  prac- 
tice. If  wish  were  consummation  then  were  congregational  singing  per- 
fection. 

The  thetical  statement  of  the  subject  implies  a  tacit  confession  that  con- 
gregational singing  is  not,  in  general,  as  good  as  it  should  be.  Any  one 
conversant  with  the  facts  that  call  forth  the  subject  will  not  question  this. 
In  this  defect  all  denominations  share,  some,  perhaps,  to  a  larger  extent 
than  others.  Remedial  agents  are  wanted.  To  prescribe  these  is  the  object 
of  this  paper.  It  is  to  be  understood,  however,  that  we  shall  not  attempt  to 
lay  down  rules  and  theories,  or  advocate  methods  that  seek  to  turn  our  con- 
gregations into  finished  and  artistic  singers.  The  subject  does  not  imply 
that  much.  Neither  shall  we  aim  to  give  a  philosophical  disquistion  upon 
the  worth  and  utility  of  congregational  singing.  The  subject  is  an  em- 
inently practical  one  and  our  treatment  shall  be  one  of  plain,  practical, 
common-sense  means  by  which  the  apparent  apathy  and  general  in- 
difference as  to  good  congregational  singing  may  be  overcome.  It  has  been 
remarked  by  a  very  able  writer  on  Church  Music  that  "not  only  will  con- 
gregations sing,  but  they  will  not  learn  to  sing."  Here  lies  the  chief  dif- 
ficulty. The  love  of  song  and  participation  in  it  are  ingrained  in  human 
nature.  But  it  does  not  follow  that,  because  the  love  of  music  is  in  one's 
soul,  therefore  correct  expression  can  be  given  in  singing.  Good  congre- 
gational singing  is  an  acquirement  developed  along  lines  that  need  not  pre- 
sent Alpine  barriers  to  its  worthy  attainment.  We  desire,  therefore,  to  lay 
down  this  proposition  : — 

I. 

TO  HAVE  GOOD  CONGREGATIONAL  SINGING  THE  CONGRE- 
GATION MUST  LEARN  TO  SING. 

Propositions  are  more  easily  formulated  than  demonstrated.  We  look 
upon  this  proposition  very  much  as  we  do  upon  a  sinner  and  his  reforma- 
tion. Convince  a  man  of  sin  and  you  pave  the  way  for  repentance.  Con- 
vince a  congregation  of  the  desirability  and  beauty  of  good  singing  and  the 
entering  wedge  has  been  driven.     Much  as  we  may  lament  the  absence  of 

(33) 


34 

good  singing  by  our  congregations  we  cannot  help  asking  the  question, 
"What  active  measures  are  we  pursuing  to  remedy  the  fault?"  Simple 
lamentation  is  never  productive  of  realized  desires.  A  congregation  must  be 
made  to  feel  and  know  that  its  efforts  are  not  the  best  of  which  it  is  capa- 
ble. How  this  knowledge  is  to  be  imparted  is  the  practical  part  of  the  ques- 
tion. A  series  of  lectures  on  "Christian  Worship"  wherein  the  ideal  is  ever 
held  to  view,  would  by  no  means  be  unprofitable.  Singing  would  naturally 
claim  a  fair  share  of  such  lectures,  and  in  so  striking  a  manner  could  be  pre- 
sented a  sharp  contrast  between  the  real  and  the  ideal  that  a  congregation 
would  at  once  discern  the  faults  adhering  to  its  own  performance  and 
seek  deliverance  therefrom. 

Many  congregations  guilty  of  poor  singing  are  in  total  ignorance  of 
their  defect.  This  is  not  due  to  the  fact  that  they  do  not  appreciate  good 
singing  but  that  their  attention  has  never  been  called  to  its  importance. 
The  blame  does  not  always  rest  upon  congregations,  but  more  often  upon 
organists,  choirs  and  pastors.  We  do  not  wish  to  condemn  any  class  of 
persons  that  take  part  in  the  services  of  the  Church ;  but  it  does  seem  very 
apparent  that  many  highly-skilled  organists  and  well-trained  choirs  prefer 
the  virtual  silence  of  the  congregation  in  order  that  their  superior  gifts  may 
shine  with  greater  lustre  and  evoke  the  pleasing  admiration  of  an  entranced 
congregation.  We  have  never  yet  been  able  to  feel  the  charm  of  worshiping 
by  proxy,  whether  in  the  elaborate  High  Mass  of  Rome  or  in  the  diversely 
opposite  bleakness  of  non-liturgical  Churches.  Pastors  equally  share  the 
blame  for  poor  singing,  because  they  never  seek  to  elevate  the  standard  a 
congregation  sets  for  itself.  We  doubt  not  that  some  pastors  would  rather 
have  golden  silence  reign  in  their  congregations  than  have  the  silver  tones 
of  their  fluttering  orioles  marred  by  the  drawling  hum  of  even  one  man 
with  no  music  in  his  soul.  A  preacher  who  thinks  of  little  else  than  a 
$5,000  salary,  patent-leather  shoes,  a  square  foot  of  immaculate  shirt-front, 
dress  coat,  heart-stirring  and  tear-producing  prayers,  and  the  delivery  of 
political  buncombe  that  a  ''yellow  journal"  might  generously  adopt  as  edi- 
torials, must  assuredly  receive  more  gratification  from  the  mellifluous  strains 
of  operatic  airs  dispensed  by  his  harmony-keeping  choir  than  from  the  swell 
of  congregational  voices  that  to  exasperatingly  slow  time  linger  over  a 
beautiful  tune  like  "Germany."  The  fact  of  the  matter  is  that  individuality 
usurps  too  great  a  place  with  some  pastors  and  choirs,  while  the  wants  of 
the  congregations  are  ignored.  To  have  good  congregational  singing  there 
must  be  hearty  co-operation  on  the  part  of  organist,  choir,  pastor  and  con- 
gregation. Just  as  the  different  members  of  the  body  form  after  all  a  unit 
in  a  person,  so  these,  though  having  somewhat  different  functions,  should 
still  form  a  congregational  unit.  Wherever  this  unity  is  broken  the  attain- 
ment of  our  aims  is  not  realized.  The  worst  feature  is  that  the  congregation 
is  the  first  to  suffer  and  is  not  slack  to  delegate  its  distinctive  prerogatives 
to  those  who,  from  the  very  nature  of  worship,  cannot  fulfil  for  the  con- 
gregation what  every  individual  worshiper  must  do  for  himself.  There  is 
here  a  congregational  responsibility  that  cannot  be  shifted  if  worship  is  to 
redound  to  edification.  Edification  and  not  simply  gratification  must  un- 
derlie every  part  of  the  service  of  the  Church.  The  first  clear  duty,  there- 
fore, is  to  awaken  a  congregation's  responsibility  in  this  matter  as  in  every 


35 

other.  This  accomplished,  we  believe  that  every  successive  step  in  the  ac- 
quirement of  better  congregational  singing  will  be  more  easily  attained. 
Awakened  responsibility,  however,  and  even  a  congregation's  desire  to  have 
good  singing  on  its  own  part  are  not  the  realization.  They  are  only  the 
beginning.  How  the  aim  is  to  be  accomplished  we  now  intend  to  detail  in 
considering. 

II. 

THE  METHODS  BY  WHICH  A  CONGREGATION  MAY  LEARN 
TO   SING  WELL. 

It  is  not  possible  for  every  congregation  to  maintain  a  Conservatory 
of  Music.  Neither  is  this  necessary.  It  is  possible,  however,  and  more- 
over should  be  a  requirement,  that  every  congregation  have  an  organization 
looking  to  the  elevation  of  congregational  singing.  Such  an  organization 
nearly  every  congregation  has  in  its  Sunday  School.  We  would,  therefore, 
suggest 

i.  Uiilize  the  Sunday  School.  Does  singing  receive  the  attention  in 
our  Sunday  Schools  its  importance  demands  ?  Singing  is  one  of  the  ele- 
ments of  worship.  The  Sunday  School  should  be  the  preparatory  train- 
ing-ground for  the  right  interpretation  and  proper  understanding  of  and 
joyful  participation  in  the  services  of  the  Church.  To  develop  but  a  part  of 
that  which  constitutes  worship  is  reserving  a  part  the  lack  of  which  will 
destroy  the  equilibrium  of  a  worshipful  spirit.  The  length  of  time  allotted 
to  the  services  of  the  Sunday  School  may  perhaps  act  as  a  hindrance  to 
what  we  are  here  advocating.  But  surely  the  faults  which,  in  general,  are 
the  cause  of  poor  congregational  singing,  can  be  corrected  in  the  Sunday 
School  without  much  loss  of  time.  Every  Sunday  School  should  have  some 
one  qualified  to  point  out  defects  and  vested  with  authority  to  correct  them. 
If  the  singing  be  too  flat,  too  slow,  or  too  fast,  too  rough  and  loud,  or  too 
low,  approaching  a  mere  murmur,  here  is  the  place  to  remedy  the  fault. 
Frequently  only  a  part  of  the  school  sings  while  the  other  part  is  engaged 
in  something  out  of  harmony  with  even  reverence.  To  inspire  and  infuse 
a  spirit  of  joyous  participation  in  song  should  be  one  of  the  aims  of  every 
well-regulated  Sunday  School.  The  inspiration  of  such  a  spirit  will  have 
its  reflex  influence  on  the  singing  by  the  congregation.  In  this  way  the 
"pretty  voices  of  the  children  would  come  to  swell  the  stream  of  sound" 
flowing  forth  from  a  congregation  and  their  influence  could  not  be  other- 
wise than  beneficial.     We  repeat,  therefore,  utilize  the  Sunday  School. 

2.  Have  special  meetings  for  practice.  We  have  rehearsals  for  operas, 
rehearsals  for  oratorios  and  cantatas,  rehearsals1  for  weddings,  rehearsals 
for  entertainments,  rehearsals  by  choirs,  why  not  have  rehearsals  for  con- 
gregational singing?  Is  the  worshipful  spirit  of  our  congregations  at  so 
low  an  ebb  as  to  be  utterly  indifferent  to  the  proper  rendering  of  so  joyous 
a  part  as  singing?  Will  our  congregations  refuse  to  assemble  monthly  or 
bi-weekly  to  be  instructed  in  that  which  forms  so  large  and  important  a 
part  in  their  life  as  worshiping  people?  We  do  not  believe  it.  Rather  do 
we  believe  that  we  dote  upon  faults  which  we  in  no  way  seek  to  remedy. 
Even  if  only  one-half  or  less  of  a  congregation  should  honor  such  rehear- 
sals by  their  presence,  a  positive  gain,,  at  least  to  that  extent,  would  be  the 


36 

result.  At  such  meetings,  in  a  judicious  and  discreet  manner,  could  be 
pointed  out  such  defects  as  particularly  call  for  improvement.  The  ele- 
mental principles  of  music  could  be  dwelt  upon.  The  value  of  notes  and 
the  meaning  of  musical  notation  could  be  explained.  A  more  accurate  idea 
of  pitch  would  also  result.  At  such  rehearsals  the  organ  should  bear  a 
very  inferior  part.  Thus  step  by  step  a  congregation  would  be  led  onward 
on  the  march  toward  a  higher  standard  of  music.  To  such  as  have  passed 
beyond  the  rudimentary  stages  and  are  able  to  read  music  at  sight,  this 
process  would  not  seem  tedious,  because,  if  the  right  spirit  be  present,  their 
compensation  would  be  immeasurably  enhanced  by  the  increased  interest 
and  better  performance  of  the  united  congregation.  We  confess  we  were 
somewhat  surprised  by  the  following  from  the  pen  of  J.  Spencer  Curwen 
in  his  "Studies  in  Worship  Music,"  (p.  324)  :  "Most  attempts  to  improve 
congregational  singing  begin  with  the  institution  of  a  congregational  prac- 
tice. What  is  this?  It  consists  usually  of  a  certain  number  of  people  who 
can  read  music,  who  already  know  what  they  have  come  to  learn,  and  a 
large  number  who  cannot  read  music,  and  who  attempt  on  what  we  may 
call  the  'do  it  again'  method  to  drum  into  their  ears  a  few  chants  and 
hymn-tunes  to  be  used  in  Cflurch  next  Sunday.  On  the  face  of  it  this  is 
an  illogical  and  fruitless  proceeding.  What  should  we  say  of  a  class  for 
reading  Shakespeare,  formed  chiefly  of  people  who  have  not  learned  their 
letters,  but  who  hope,  by  hearing  the  others  read  a  few  passages  over  a 
great  many  times,  to  get  them  into  their  memories?  Everyone  sees  the 
futility  of  this?  After  much  wearisome  repetition  and  labor  we  do  not  teach 
them  to  read  Shakespeare,  but  to  repeat  a  few  short  passages  with  tolerable 
correctness,  by  memory.  How  insignificant  the  result.  Surely  it  will  take 
less  time  to  send  these  people  to  learn  their  letters,  so  that  they  may  come 
to  read  Shakespeare,  and  all  other  books,  independently  of  our  help  and  pres- 
ence. Apply  the  illustration  to  singing.  What  we  have  to  do  is  to  teach 
people  to  read  music :  and  then  every  chant  and  hymn-tune  is  within  their 
reach."  While  we  admit  the  force  of  his  argument  we  cannot  accept  all  his 
premises  and  deductions.  He  confounds  and  mixes  what  is  sacred  and 
spiritual  with  what  is  purely  secular.  Congregational  singing  is  a  sacred 
and  spiritual  exercise;  reading  Shakespeare  is  an  intellectual  fea^t.  The 
former  touches  the  heart  ana  Christian  life,  the  latter  gratifies  mental  capa- 
bilities. The  former  demands  its  exercise  as  far  as  man  is  able,  the  latter 
may  be  safely  neglected.  If  the  quotation  be  logically  true,  then,  equally  futile 
is  the  teaching  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  Ten  Commandments  and  Apostles' Creed 
to  children  who  have  not  yet  learned  to  read, — a  point  we  cannot  concede. 
The  argument  might  be  well  taken,  were  secular  interests  merely  at  stake. 
Surely  the  drawling  hum  of  one  untrained  singer  intent  on  worship  ana 
whom  "the  love  of  Christ  constraineth"  to  employ  whatever  gifts  he  may 
possess,  is  more  aceptable  than  his  silence  out  of  deference  to  the  rich  and 
sweet  tones  of  one  hundred  eminently  cultured  in  music,  yet  lacking  the  love 
of  God  in  their  hearts.  We  admit  the  beauty,  even  the  desirability  of  a  con- 
gregation's ability  to  read  music,  but  if  this  cannot  be  accomplished,  then, 
we  would  prefer  the  old  "do  it  again"  method  to  no  method  at  all.  which 
virtually  means  congregational  silence.  We  quite  agree  with  the  writer 
quoted  when  he  says,  "Our  purpose  is  not  to  discourage  the  meeting  of  the 


37 

congregation,  but  to  make  such  meetings  infinitely  more  productive  by  classi- 
fying the  congregation  into  two  portions — those  who  can  read  music  and 
those  who  cannot.  Those  who  can  read  form  the  choir,  which  is  recruited  at 
the  close  of  each  season  from  the  ranks  of  those  who  have  been  learning  how 
to  read  in  the  elementary  class.  The  choir  should  be  a  large  body,  one  por- 
tion of  which  sits  together  in  the  Church,  the  larger  portion  being  distrib- 
uted during  service  among  the  congregation,  helping  by  their  presence  the 
timid  and  wavering." 

3.  More  frequent  usage  of  new  tunes.  We  know  of  several  congrega- 
tions that  for  years  were  without  organ,  organist,  or  leader.  The  pastor 
acted  as  leader  and  had  a  repertory  of  about  a  dozen  tunes  which  were  made 
to  fit  all  hymns  sung.  These  tunes  became  so  familiar  that  the  singing  was 
considered  excellent.  The  advent  of  instruments  in  their  midst  and  the 
consequent  addition  of  new  tunes  produced  somewhat  of  a  lull  for  a  time ; 
but  the  frequent  use  of  these  new  tunes  soon  rendered  them  familiar  and 
the  character  of  the  tune  fitted  to  the  spirit  of  the  hymn  produced  a  decided 
change  for  the  better.  To  use  an  unfamiliar  tune  but  once  in  three  or  six 
months  and  expect  a  congregation  to  sing  it  well  is  next  to  expecting  the 
impossible.  So  long  as  congregations  must  rely  upon  learning  tunes  by 
ear,  that  long  must  new  tunes  especially  come  before  them  at  brief  intervals. 
Would  the  tune  of  Luther's  "Battle-Hymn"  be  as  familiar  to  German  con- 
gregations, did  they  hear  it  but  once  a  year  on  "The  Festival  of  the  Refor- 
mation"? WTe  doubt  it.  A  choir  that  learns  a  new  tune,  sings  it  once,  and 
then  objects  to  re-sing  it  next  Sunday  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  it  was  sung 
last  Sunday,  deserves,  in  our  opinion,  condemnation. 

4.  We  need  better  methods  for  applying  what  we  regard  helpful.  In- 
stead of  having  simply  General  Council  Convocations,  we  should  also  have 
Conference  Convocations.  National  movements  prove  of  little  consequence 
unless  they  are  backed  by  local  influence.  Practical  illustrations  should  be 
afforded  our  people.  A  series  of  Conference  Convocations  followed  by  less 
pretentious  meetings  in  local  congregations  would  probably  achieve  this  pur- 
pose. We  need  more  agitation,  for  agitation  usually  has  a  wholesome  effect. 
If  the  general  work  of  the  Church  received  as  little  attention  as  congrega- 
tional singing,  the  Millennium  would  have  to  be  ushered  in  without  "the 
kingdoms  of  this  world  having  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord,  and  of 
His  Christ." 

We   wish   to  note. 

III. 

SOME  HINDRANCES  THAT  CALL  FOR  REMOVAL  BEFORE  THE 
DESIRED  END  CAN  BE  ATTAINED. 
1.  Multiplied  forms  of  service.  Thus  far,  in  our  treatment  of  the 
topic,  we  have  purposely  refrained  from  drawing  any  distinction  between 
the  chanting  and  hymn  portions  of  the  service,  inasmuch  as  both  belong  to 
the  subject  of  congregational  singing.  We  separate  them  here  only  to 
draw  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  use  of  different  forms  in  the  strictly 
liturgical  part  of  the  service  is  not  conducive  to  good  congregational  singing. 
By  this  we  mean  that  the  form  used  by  the  Sunday  School  should  also  be 
the  one  used  by  the  congregation.     The  use  of  different  forms  is  apt  to 


38 

produce  confusion.  What  we  should  seek  to  avoid  is  that  multiplied  variety 
of  settings  for  the  Services  and  Chants  for  the  Psalms  and  Canticles  that 
have  been  sprung  upon  the  Church  since  the  Reformation,  notably  by  the 
Anglican  Church.  Our  individual  preference  is  for  the  authentic  Gregorian 
or  Plain  Song  melodies  for  the  Liturgy,  and  the  historical  Psalm  Tones  of 
the  Gregorian  system  for  the  Psalmody.  These  melodies,  while  eminently 
devotional  and  beautiful,  are  simple  in  form  and  few  in  number,  and  once 
acquired  are  easily  retained.  We  hail  the  day  when  a  companion  volume 
shall  give  our  "Chief  Service"  the  skillful  arrangement  and  worshipful  effect 
that  the  "Psalter  and  Canticles''  has  given  the  Matin  and  Vesper  Services. 

2.  An  insufficient  number  of  Church  Books.  This  obstacle  should  be 
removed  at  once,  if  possible.  To  the  heart  of  a  sensitive  pastor  it  is  dis- 
tressing to  witness  ofttimes  a  goodly  number  of  his  people  gazing  at  fres- 
coed walls  or  looking  with  idle  curiosity  at  cobwebs  which  the  dreamy  eyes 
of  an  unobserving  sexton  have  failed  to  spy.  They  do  this,  not  because  of 
the  felicitous  enjoyment  it  affords  them,  but,  because  having  no  Church 
Book,  they  feel  they  have  no  part  in  the  service.  WTe  have  all  seen  the  some- 
what ludicrous  spectacle  of  persons  peering  over  shoulders  and  dodging 
the  obstruction  interposed  by  a  rather  large  expanse  of  head-gear.  ir.  order 
to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  words  of  the  hymn.  Every  individual  worshiper 
should  have  a  Church  Book,  so  as  not  to  be  distracted  by.  nor  distract 
another.  A  plain  and  discreet  statement  of  the  case  to  a  Church  Council 
would  often  remove  this  hindrance. 

3.  The  absence  of  tune  books.  We  need  an  inexpensive  book  contain- 
ing only  what  is  absolutely  necessary  for  the  proper  rendering  of  the  whole 
Service.  Such  a  work  we  have  in  the  "Church  Book  with  Music";  but  the 
fact  is  that  this  magnificent  work  is  not  generally  used.  Probably  if  our 
congregations  were  as  musically  cultured  as  its  gifted  authoress,  this  diffi- 
culty would  vanish.  This  book  is  appreciated  only  where  the  musical 
standard  of  a  congregation  is  considerably  beyond  the  ordinary.  We  be- 
lieve the  time  will  come  when  this  work  will  receive  the  honor  it  merits, 
especially  in  its  hymn-tune  department. 

4.  Reliance  upon  external  aids.  Surpassing  strange  is  it  to  know  how 
much  reliance  people  will  place  upon  external  influences  to  help  them  out 
of  difficulties  which  they  alone  can  remove.  No  sooner  is  a  church  edifice 
erected  at  present,  when  the  congregation  begins  to  tug  gently  at  the  golden 
strings  of  a  certain  man's  plethoric  purse  in  the  hope  that  a  fine,  large  pipe 
organ  may  fill  a  gaping  niche  in  their  new  house  of  worship.  The  advent 
of  such  an  instrument  will  surely  remedy  the  defects  hitherto  so  apparent 
in  their  congregational  singing!  Surely  it  will  prove  a  panacea  for 
many  congregational  ills!  The  noble  instrument  secured,  the  horizon  is 
surveyed  for  a  person  qualified  to  manipulate  so  splendid  a  piece  of  Church 
furnishment.  At  last  one  is  employed  whose  sole  qualification  for  the  office 
is  his  ability  as  an  executant,  though  he  may  have  no  intelligent  comprehen- 
sion of  the  inner  meaning  of  the  Services  of  the  Church,  and  may  even  be 
woefully  lacking  in  devotional,  not  to  say  Christian,  feeling.  Only  one  thing 
more  is  necessary— a  quartette  choir  to  dispense  the  pleasing  arias  of  some 
feet-moving  operas,  and  then— "the  last  state  of  that  congregation  is  worse 


39 

than  the  first."  We  do  not  mean,  by  this  caricature,  to  depreciate  any  01 
these  aids;  but  they  should  only  serve  as  helps;  for  just  as  soon  as  they  be- 
come masters  completely  overshadowing  the  congregation's  part,  they  are  a 
detriment  to  the  cause  which  they  are  supposed  to  serve  and  enhance. 

5.  Musically  untrained  pastors.  Every  pastor  should  have,  at  least  to 
some  extent,  a  musical  education.  Not  necessarily  an  education  that  would 
fit  him  to  play  skillfully  a  Bach  fugue  or  a  Beethoven  sonata,  but  a  musical 
training  sufficient  to  enable  him  to  judge  whether  singing  is  good  or  poor, 
to  detect  defects,  and  intelligently  discriminate  between  what  is  true 
"Church  Music"  and  what  is  not,  however  pleasing.  We  hope  the  time 
will  come  when  our  theological  seminaries  will  deem  this  fundamental 
musical  knowledge  necessary  for  graduation. 

Many  other  points  might  be  touched  upon ;  but  we  believe  those  given, 
if  acted  upon,  would  help  to  solve  the  problem,  "How  to  Secure  Good  Con- 
gregational Singing." 


The  Festivals  of  the  Sunday  School  with 
Reference  to  their  Music- 


BY  THE  REV.  GOMER  C.  REES. 


In  approaching  this  subject  let  us  bear  in  mind  that  the  Sunday 
School  is  the  child  of  the  Church,  and  our  treatment  of  her  musically, 
as  well  as  in  other  matters,  should  be  in  accordance  with  this  idea.  Her 
life  is  one  of  continuous  youthfulness.  Her  strength  numerically  is 
confined  ordinarily  to  such  of  her  members  as  are  in  the  earlier  years 
of  life.  Her  strength  in  many  other  directions  is  the  natural  result 
of  this  same  fact,  and  in  no  sphere  is  this  truer  than  in  that  of  music. 
Children,  as  is  universally  acknowledged,  are  more  apt  than  those  of 
mature  growth.  They  are  quick  to  discern  and  appropriate  what  is 
presented  to  them.  They  are  in  that  impressionable  stage  of  their  ex- 
istence when  their  lives  are  most  easily  molded  and  the  impressions 
then  given  are  lasting,  and  permanently  influence  their  growth  and 
development.  This  is  pre-eminently  true  in  the  sphere  of  music,  and 
therefore  applies  with  equal  force  to  Sunday  School  music. 

In  addition  to  these  natural  qualities,  with  their  aptness  and  sus- 
ceptibility of  improvement,  we  see  in  the  Sunday  School  the  future 
Church.  Whatever  influences  the  Sunday  School  will  in  a  greater  or  less 
degree  affect  the  Church.  The  foundation,  if  loosely  laid,  will  cause 
a  corresponding  instability  throughout  the  structure.  The  musical  seed 
sown  in  the  Sunday  School  will  be  received  into  fertile  soil  and  will 
bring  forth  its  harvest,  either  of  leaves  or  fruit,  and  the  future  Church 
will  be  the  reaper.  How  highly  necessary  it  is,  then,  that  the  future 
Church,  even  in  its  infancy  and  throughout  the  different  stages  of  its 
musical  growth,  should  receive  an  ever-watchful  care.  Proper  recog- 
nition should  be  given  to  the  qualities,  abilities  and  needs  of  those  with 
whom  we  have  to  deal,  and  then  engaging  tact  should  be  exercised  in 
bringing  matters  to  a  fruitful  fulfillment.  The  musical  powers  of  the 
Sunday  School  must  be  judiciously  developed  and  their  force  brought 
to  bear  on  the  problem  if  we  would  obtain  the  greatest  results  in  Church 
music. 

Our  opportunities  are  presented  to  us  every  Sunday  in  the  regular 
sessions  of  the  school,  and  frequent  and  proper  use  should  be  made 
of  them.  Besides  these,  however,  we  have  special  opportunities,  times 
when  many  things  conduce  to  the  best  results,  when  the  Sunday  School 
seems  to  be  most  susceptible  and  receptive.  These  times  and  oppor- 
tunities are,  as  our  topic  indicates,  "The  Festivals  of  the  Sunday  School." 
At    such   times   there   is   a   certain   enthusiasm   which   readily   overcomes 

(41) 


42 

otherwise  insurmountable  difficulties.  This  enthusiasm  arises  perhaps 
from  the  prevailing  religious  thought  of  the  festival  which  is  commem- 
orated. To  this  is  added  the  pleasing  customs,  universal  or  local,  which 
surround  such  events.  All  conduces  to  a  feeling  of  buoyancy,  of  en- 
thusiasm which,  properly  directed,  becomes  a  strong  and  energetic 
working  force.  It  adds  zest  to  what  under  less  favorable  circumstances 
might  be  irksome  and  tedious.  With  such  conditions  existing  we  are 
able  to  do  more  and  better  work  than  at  any  other  time.  To  this 
favorable  state  of  affairs  we  add  the  no  less  favorable  fact  that  the  musical 
feature  of  the  "festivals"  is  the  largest  part  of  the  program.  It  is  ex- 
pected to  be  thus,  and  is  rightly  looked  upon  as  a  musical  service.  Here 
we  have  the  opportunity  then,  almost  co-extensive  with  the  length  of 
the  program,  to  advance  the  cause  of  Church  music.  The  opportunity 
is  certainly  ample  enough  and  our  best  endeavors  should  be  bent  on 
a  judicious  and  tactful  use  of  it. 

Beginning  with  the  Church  Year  we  come  first  to  the  Festival 
of  Christmas.  Our  thoughts  turn  to  the  Babe  of  Bethlehem,  to  the 
Only  Begotten  of  God,  to  the  most  gracious  fact  of  the  Incarnation, 
and  we  seek  to  incorporate  our  thoughts,  not  only  in  words,  but  also 
in  musical  forms.  The  grand  angels'  chorus  inspires  us  to  emulate  it 
and  join  our  voices  in  giving  "Glory  ...  to  God  on  high."  And 
the  music  for  this  Festival  should  properly  express  this  glory  to  God 
and  peace  toward  men.  It  should  not  simply  be  the  clumsy  vehicle  of 
words,  but  through  its  own  living  power  and  spirit,  it  should  be  ex- 
pressive of  and  embody  the  thoughts  which  it  seeks  to  convey,  and  thus 
enhance  the  beauty  of  the  entire  expression.  It  should  be  joyful  and 
bright,  yet  deeply  devotional. 

An  equally  joyous  Festival  of  the  Sunday  School  is  that  of  Easter. 
Yet  there  is  a  lingering  tinge  of  sadness  which,  however,  quickly 
disappears  beneath  the  ardent  glow  of  the  truths  of  the  Redemption  and 
Resurrection.  These  facts  should  imbue  and  permeate  the  music  in 
order  that  it  might  give  adequate  expression  to  the  thoughts  intended 
to  be  given. 

The  Reformation  Festival  brings  uppermost  in  our  minds  the  ideas 
of  the  stern  and  the  rugged,  the  mighty  fortress  and  stronghold  of 
faith.  Here  again  the  music  should  be  the  natural  concomitant  of  the 
ideas,  if  possible,  the  natural  outgrowth  of  the  ideas,  and  should  add 
an  individual  weight  to  their  presentation. 

At  Anniversary  Festivals  the  sphere  of  activity  becomes  enlarged. 
It  broadens  and  becomes  more  general.  Here  greatest  latitude  is  pos- 
sible, as  follows  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case.  The  resources  are 
limited  only  by  the  dictates  of  judicious  selection. 

There  is  another  season  of  the  Church  year  which  should  be  marked 
by  a  musical  service,  we  can  scarcely  say  a  Festival,  and  that  is  thfc 
s?ason  of  Lent.  The  opening  of  this  season  with  such  a  service  would 
undoubtedly  add  to  its  solemnity  throughout  and  we  would  be  brought 
>t  closely  in  contact  with  music  especially  appropriate  to  the  sea- 
Thus  we  readily  see  the  vastness  of  the  field  of  musical  labor  in 
the   Sunday  School  opened  up  by  its  Festivals.     The  work  is  too  widely 


43 

diversified  to  be  monotonous,  and  yet  not  so  scattered  as  to  become 
desultory  and  non-productive  of  good  results. 

In  making  use  of  the  opportunities  thus  presented  to  us  we  seek 
to  incorporate  them  in  a  program,  and  here  we  find  that  our  Church 
has  amply  provided  for  us.  In  our  Matins  and  Vespers  we  have  a  form 
which  is  most  admirably  adapted  to  supply  this  need.  Their  telescopic 
adaptabilities  allow  sufficient  flexibleness  in  such  services  and  yet  confine 
them  within  proper  liturgical  bounds. 

To  those  who  celebrate  their  Festivals  at  an  early  morning  hour, 
the  Matin  service  furnishes  a  churchly  and  dignified  setting  and  yet 
gives  ample  scope  for  diversity  and  extension.  Here,  however,  we  must 
be  careful  that  we  do  not  lose  sight  of  the  distinctive  parts  of  the  service, 
which  should  be  kept  intact.  To  illustrate,  we  mention  the  opening 
versicles:  the  Invitatory,  either  general  or  special,  designating  the  thought 
of  the  Church  Year ;  the  Venite  Exultemus ;  the  Hymn  ;  the  Psalm  ;  the 
Lesson;  the  Canticle,  those  given  ordinarily  in  the  Matin  service, 
namely,  the  Te  Deum  Laudamus  and  the  Benedictus.  being  worthy  of 
much  greater  acceptance  and  usage;  lastly  the  Prayers.  The  adjustable 
part  of  the  service  can  be  very  readily  arranged  in  connection  with  the 
Lessons. 

However,  as  the  evening  is  the  time  usually  set  apart  for  Sunday 
School  Festivals,  we  turn  our  attention  more  particularly  to  the  Vesper 
service.  The  opening  Hymn  or  Processional  introduces  the  service,  and 
again  we  have  the  opening  versicles.  followed  by  the  Psalm,  with  or 
without  the  antiphon.  then  come  the  Lesson  or  Lessons.  At  this  point 
the  service  admits  of  much  diversity.  The  Rubrics  say  that  "one  or 
more  Scripture  Lessons  shall  be  read."  There  is  no  limit  to  the  Lessons 
and  consequently  no  limit  to  the  program  except  such  as  the  nature  of  the 
case  may  demand.  Here  the  Lessons  may  be  interspersed  with  hymns 
appropriate  to  the  Lesson  or  to  the  season  of  the  Church  Year.  Here 
the  infant  class  may  receive  due  recognition  in  Biblical  recitations  and 
in  singing  carols.  Here  the  choir  may  deepen  the  impression  of  the 
thought  of  the  season  by  singing  the  Responsory.  and  may  again  appear 
in  the  singing  of  an  offertory  after  the  address.  Care,  however,  should 
be  taken  that  in  the  extended  part  of  the  service  it  does  not  become  too 
long,  otherwise  much  of  the  benefit  and  good  results  will  be  lost.  The 
distinctive  part  of  the  closing  portion  of  the  service  is  introduced  either 
by  a  general  versicle  or  by  one  appropriate  to  the  season  of  the  Church 
Year,  then  the  Canticle  engages  our  attention.  Here  it  seems  to  me 
there  should  be  more  diversity.  Our  Sunday  Schools  should  become 
acquainted  with  as  many  Canticles  and  their  corresponding  music  as  are 
appropriate  to  the  hour  and  day.  In  the  Prayers  we  should  also  make 
greater  use  of  the  rich  provisions  of  our  Church  Book.  Whether  the 
Litany  could  be  sung  by  our  Sunday  Schools  at  a  Lenten  service  in  an 
edifying  manner  is  yet  an  untried  experiment.  This  is  equally  true  of 
the  Suffrages.  Possibilities,  however,  are  suggested  which  may  bring 
forth  meritorious  fruit.  In  the  Morning  Suffrages  for  Matins  and  the 
Evening  Suffrages  for  Vespers  we  have  a  very  pleasing  diversion,  and 
their  beauty  is  strikingly  set  forth  by  chanting  the  major  portions.     The 


44 

two  last  named  prayers  could  be  readily  attained  in  their  musical  setting 
by  any  Sunday  School.  The  Recessional  ends  the  musical  part  of  the 
service  and   should  be  carefully   selected. 

The  form  of  the  program  for  the  Festivals  of  the  Sunday  School  hav- 
ing been  given  to  us.  the  next  thing  that  occupies  our  attention  is  the 
consideration  of  the  musical  material  out  of  which  the  program  is  to  be 
constructed.  We  will  all  undoubtedly  agree  in  eradicating  that  flood  of 
light,  frivolous  sort  of  music,  which  is  so  prevalent  about  us,  which 
reminds  us  strongly  of  a  meaning  formerly  attached  to  the  word  carol, 
namely,  to  dance.  Many  of  the  modern  so-called  carols  seem  to  be  bent 
on  giving  truth  to  the  ancient  signification  of  the  term,  for  they  are 
often  better  fitted  for  the  dance  than  for  the  engendering  of  a  worshipful 
mood.  To  fill  our  programs  with  such  material  would  be  to  unite  the 
secular  with  the  religious.  It  would  be  more:  it  would  be  a  yielding  to 
the  secular,  it  would  be  the  secularization  of  the  music  of  the  Church, 
or  rather  the  churchizing  of  secular  music.  This  is  a  state  of  affair^ 
entirely  too  prevalent  in  the  churches,  perhaps  not  so  much  in  our 
churches,  yet  having  a  certain  indirect  influence  upon  them,  and  there- 
fore must  be  guarded  against.  This  style  of  music  occupies  much  the 
same  position  to  the  Church  as  "popular"  music  does  to  standard  secular 
works.  Like  "popular"  music  it  is  used  a  short  time  but  soon  becomes 
wearisome,  nauseating.  It  dies  a  natural  death  from  exhaustion  and  is 
quickly  cast  aside  for  some  equally  or  perhaps  less  worthy  musical 
bauble.  Such  carols  do  even  more  harm  by  vitiating  the  musical  taste. 
If  indulged  in  to  any  appreciable  degree  they  are  certain  to  have  a 
derogatory  influence,  and  if  persisted  in  will  eventually  bring  the  musical 
taste  down  to  their  level.  The  higher  forms  of  the  art  will  then  lack 
proper  recognition.  The  grand  old  tunes  will  fail  to  enthuse,  will  cease, 
to  interest,  and  will  be  relegated  to  the  shelf  of  the  antiquated. 

On  the  other  hand  our  programs  should  give  evidence  of  careful 
selection.  Judicious  care  should  be  used  not  only  in  the  selection  of  the 
best,  but  also  in  selecting  the  best  adapted  to  the  purpose.  A  selection 
in  itself  may  be  very  good,  but  may  not.  on  account  of  inadaptability, 
accomplish  the  best  results.  We  do  not  mean,  however,  that  there 
should  be  a  continual  catering  to  the  popular  taste,  but  we  should  seek 
rather  to  elevate  their  musical  taste.  Even  if  at  first  the  selection 
in  question  should  be  a  little  beyond  the  ordinary  comprehension,  yet 
by  teaching  them  to  comprehend  it  we  are  simply  raising  them  to  a 
higher  plane  of  appreciation  and  opening  the  way  for  still  further  de- 
velopment. Instead  of  the  taste  being  vitiated  by  such  treatment  it  is 
continually  developed  and  ever  brought  nearer  to  an  appreciation  of  the 
best. 

Of  course,  in  defining  what  is  good  Church  music  we  enter  largely 
into  the  field  of  personal  opinion,  where  no  two  men  do  in  all  points 
agree.  What  is  good  to  one  is  mediocre  to  another,  and  what  is  mediocre 
to  one  is  of  little  worth  to  another.  Personal  opinion  is  a  variable 
quantity.  Yet  it  is  also  true  that  in  the  highest  stagey  of  musical  ad- 
vancement the  sphere  is  narrowed  and  there  is  less  cause  and  oppor- 
tunity for  differences.     Accordingly  we  must  give  homage  to  those  who, 


45 

by  years  of  study  and  continuous  development,  have  reached  the  heights 
of  musical  knowledge  and  the  appreciation  of  the  best  music.  To  their 
personal  opinion  we  must  give  due  respect,  for  such  opinions  are  the 
fruits  of  maturity  and  therefore  have  intrinsic  value  and  are  generally 
reliable  and  trustworthy.  This  factor  enters  largely  into  the  selection 
of  music  for  the  Sunday  School  Festivals,  and  naturally  so.  The  more 
competent  the  person  the  greater  will  be  the  value  of  the  program. 

But  even  greater  value  would  attach  itself  to  such  a  program  if  it 
were  the  faithful  concensus  of  several  individuals  competent  to  pass 
judgment,  for  the  combined  authority  thus  given  would  necessarily 
have  additional  weight.  And  in  the  very  process  of  arriving  at  a  con- 
sensus the  best  would  prevail.  Music  for  such  occasions  should  exhibit 
a  living  power  within  itself  and  not  be  entirely  dependent  for  life  upon 
the  environment  in  which  it  is  placed.  Music  which  gives  evidence 
of  such  life  will  not  need  an  excuse  for  existing.  The  usage  of  the 
Church  is  another  unfailing  sign  of  the  worth  of  such  music.  Music 
passed  along  from  generation  to  generation,  perhaps  for  centuries,  in 
the  active  worship  of  God's  house,  bears  upon  it  the  impress  of  life 
eternal  and  has  a  value  which  time  cannot  exhaust.  By  these  and  other 
of  the  best  standards  of  Church  music  we  should  measure  our  selections, 
and  by  the  nearness  of  our  approach  we  will  be  able  to  judge  of  their 
respective  merits.  We  do  not  mean  to  say  that  all  such  selections  must 
necessarily  be  of  a  difficult  character.  They  may  be  most  simple  and 
yet  bear  within  them  the  seeds  of  continuous  youth.  Our  object  should 
be  to  give  to  the  Festivals  of  the  Sunday  School  the  very  best  churchly 
music  we  can  and  such  as  will  conduce  to  the  carrying  forward  of  the 
standard  to  a  successful  issue. 

Although  these  Festivals  are  in  a  large  degree  given  over  to  the 
Sunday  School,  yet  we  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  other  musical  forces 
of  the  church,  namely,  the  choir  and  congregation.  The  program  should 
be  arranged  with  a  proper  regard  to  each  of  these  forces  and  the 
selections  in  each  case  should  be  representative.  Not  only  should  each 
force  receive  due  recognition  as  an  individual  force,  but  by  a  combination 
of  forces  we  should  seek  to  heighten  the  beauty  of  these  services,  as.  for 
example,  in  the  antiphonal  use  of  the  Psalms.  A  considerate  use  of 
such  combinations  will  give  a  varied  and  diversified  effect  which  is  both 
pleasing  and  beneficial.  , 

Having  used  our  best  endeavors  in  the  selection  of  proper  and 
healthful  musical  material,  we  are  next  confronted  with  the  practical 
side.  First,  to  have  it  accepted  by  the  Church,  and  then,  by  practical 
demonstration,  to  confirm  the  truth  and  wisdom  of  our  course.  The 
process  may  be  slow.  Objections  will  be  raised  which  must  be  an- 
swered. The  old  cry  of  "too  heavy,"  which  is  the  popular  title  for  a 
multitude  of  musical  sins,  whether  real  or  imaginary,  will  ring  out  as 
lustily  as  ever,  and  part  of  the  ballast  may  have  to  be  heaved  overboard. 
Then  there  must  be  an  eradication  of  old  errors.  The  influence  of  the 
light  music  from  surrounding  churches  must  be  destroyed.  And.  on 
the  positive  side,  there  must  be  an  instilling  of  a  love  for  the  best. 
But    this    love    only    comes    with    an    appreciation    of   the    good,    reliable 


46 

melodies,  and  this  appreciation  is  not  of  spontaneous  development,  but 
is  ordinarily  of  a  gradual  growth.  Such  melodies  are  not  appreciated 
at  the  first  hearing.  Take,  for  example,  "Ein  Feste  Burg,"  which,  when 
heard  for  the  first  time,  may  remind  a  listless  hearer  of  the  musical 
treasures  of  barbarism,  yet  when  properly  comprehended,  carries  the 
singer  and  hearer  away  with  irresistible  power.  A  like  example  we  find 
in  "Nun  Danket  Alle  Gott"  and  many  others  which  must  be  known 
to  be  appreciated.  Consequently  we  cannot  expect  to  arrive  at  hasty 
results.  However,  we  must  not  return  to  the  light,  trifling  style  of 
music  if  we  do  not  desire  with  a  few  strokes  to  demolish  the  building 
which  we  have  been  so  careful  to  erect.  If  we  continue  constant  at 
the  shrine  of  good  music  the  results  will  certainly  be  good.  This  course 
H  points  beyond  the  narrow  limits  of  the  Sunday  School  Festivals  and 
rather  looks  upon  them  as  a  means  to  an  end,  not  only  to  advance  the 
standard  of  music  in  the  Sunday  School,  but  rather  the  advancement  of 
the  standard  of  music  in  the  Church.  Under  the  banner  of  the  Sunday 
School  Festival  program  many  desirable  things  musically  will  find  a 
ready  acceptance  in  future  Church  services,  which,  introduced  inde- 
pendently, would  raise  no  end  of  objections.  New  hymn  tunes  used 
in  these  Festivals  can  readily  be  introduced  into  the  regular  Church 
services  and  should  be  so  presented  on  the  Sundays  immediately  follow- 
ing the  Festivals.  Other  parts  of  the  service,  for  example,  the  Fsalms, 
can  in  the  same  manner  be  introduced  with  equal  success.  Even  the 
entire  Vesper  Service  has  thus  gradually  taken  possession  of  churches 
and  become  a  beloved  service,  where  before  was  great  opposition.  If  the 
Sunday  School  in  her  Festivals  has  received  wholesome  musical  food, 
when  it  becomes  the  future  Church  she  will  demand  a  continuance  of 
the  wholesome  fare  and  will  be  content  with  nothing  else.  She  will  know 
nothing  else. 

Where  there  is  rehearsing  to  be  done  it  is  necessary  to  have  the 
program  in  hand  some  time  before  the  Festival,  in  order  to  insure  a 
successful  presentation.  If  the  program  comes  in  late  there  necessarily 
follows  a  hustle  and  bustle  with  the  final  verdict,  "Do  the  best  you  can.*' 
Certainly  the  program  and  its  success  deteriorates  according  to  the 
tardiness  of  its  arrival.  Successful  presentation  is  also  dependent  upon 
the  interested  attitude  of  the  pastor,  upon  the  measure  of  appreciation 
he  manifests.  If  he  is  languid  in  the  matter  and  can  see  nothing  good 
in  the  program,  he  cannot  expect  his  Sunday  school  to  manifest  much 
enthusiasm.  This  is  true  also  of  the  superintendent  who  manifests 
sublime  indifference,  and  perhaps  may  apply  with  even  greater  force  to 
him.  The  teachers  also  have  their  share  to  do  and  can  either  detract 
from  or  advance  the  work.  The  organist  must  necessarily  have  an  ap- 
preciative knowledge  of  the  program  to  be  presented,  or  a  faithful  pre- 
sentation is  next  to  impossible.  But  to  the  leader  or  instructor  of  the 
singing  is  due  in  greatest  measure  the  success  or  failure  of  the  pre- 
sentation. He  must  enter  into  the  spirit  of  the  music.  He  must  live 
into  it  and  make  it  a  part  of  himself.  He.  himself,  must  become  en- 
thused and  then  enthuse  the  school  with  the  musical  ideas  he  desires  to 
present.     He   must   not   be   content  with  a   general   survey   of  the   work, 


47 

but  must  give  his  attention  to  details.  Yet  not  in  such  a  way  as  to 
make  the  work  a  tedious,  irksome  drag.  The  rehearsals  should  be  com- 
paratively short  and  continuous  from  one  thing  right  on  to  the  next. 
They  should  be  conducted  in  a  cheerful,  active  manner.  Continual 
repetition  of  one  number  is  liable  to  become  wearisome.  In  such 
an  event  pass  on  to  another  number  and  return  to  the  first  one  later, 
or  defer  it  until  another  rehearsal.  In  truth,  to  the  leader  is  due  in  a 
very  great  degree  the  success  or  failure  of  the  program. 

Thus  we  see  presented  in  the  Sunday  School  Festivals  a  glorious 
opportunity  for  the  advancement  of  good  Church  music.  We  have  at 
hand  a  most  admirable  form  for  the  program.  The  musical  material  is 
plentiful  and  should  be  of  the  very  best  possible  under  the  circumstances. 
And  then  in  the  end  the  argument  should  be  clinched  with  a  strong, 
practical   and  successful  presentation. 


The  Vesper  Service 


BY  THE    REV.  C.  THEODORE   BENZE,  B.  D. 


The  life  of  the  Christian,  says  Schoeberlein,  is  one  of  continual  cele- 
bration. The  facts  of  redemption,  the  work  and  words  of  the  Saviour, 
the  life  from  which  we  have  our  existence  in  time  and  eternity,  the 
love  of  the  Father  manifested  in  the  Son,  all  these  demand  contemplation, 
call  forth  our  thanksgiving  and  praise  and  move  us  to  supplication. 
Yea,  though  one  day  out  of  the  whole  week  is  hallowed  as  the  Lord's 
Day,  the  early  Church  has  called  all  days  festival  days,  has  distinguished 
some  of  these  again  with  special  offices,  and  has  given  to  each  day  its  own 
honor  and  its  own  subject  of  celebration.  It  has  even  gone  farther; 
it  has  hallowed  certain  hours  of  each  day  and  has  given  them  over  to 
prayer,  praise  and  meditation. 

"Forever  with  the  Lord!. 
Amen,  so  let  it  be; 
Life  from  the  dead  is  in  that  word, 
'Tis  immortality." 

So  thought  the  early  Christians;  so,  too,  ought  we  to  think.  Life 
receives  a  new  import  and  a  greater  significance,  when  around  its  posts 
and  pillars  are  wound  the  garlands  of  ever  verdant  festival  joy,  and 
ever  and  again  the  strains  of  joyful  praise  arise  and  ever  and  again  the 
clouds  of  incense  float  heavenward  to  the  throne  of  the  eternal  Father. 
Then  it  truly  becomes  a  life  in  God,  and  only  then  can  we  truly  say 
that  in  Him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being.  But,  alas,  too  often 
the  branches  are  cut  from  the  vine,  there  is  only  a  semblance  of  life,  the 
habitation  is  cold  and  bare  and  silent. 

It  was  so  when  the  Christian  Church  first  entered  into  this  world; 
it  is  so  whenever  the  fire  of  true  worship  is  extinguished  upon  the  altar 
and  is  no  longer  carried  thence,  a  life-giver,  into  the  hearts  of  men  of  all 
sorts  and  conditions.  If  the  world  is  conquered  by  the  life  of  the  Chris- 
tians and  its  influence,  more  than  by  force  of  argument,  how  important 
a  factor  is  our  Christian  worship,  which  feeds  and  stimulates  this  life! 
What  a  power  that  worship  was  in  the  life  of  the  early  Church  we  can 
fully  realize  only  when  we  consider  how  it  uttered  itself.  What  a  time 
it  must  have  been,  says  Armknecht,  "when  the  Holy  Ghost  descended 
upon  the  blossoms  of  the  Church's  tree  of  life  and  made  them  fertile  to 
bear  precious  seed  in  life,  in  suffering,  in  death!  Yes,  what  a  deeply 
moved  time,  what  a  powerful  working  of  the  Word,  what  a  contrition  of 

(49) 


50 

hearts,  what  praise  of  mercy,  what  rejoicings  of  faith  when  our  ancient 
Liturgy,  with  its  Intonations  and  Kyries,  its  Doxologies  and  Prefaces, 
Collects,  Creeds,  Te  Deums,  Magnificat,  and  Benedictus  grew  and 
shaped  itself  from  a  living  center,  the  Word!  When  the  public  service, 
upon  the  stirring  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  found  utterance  in  prayers  and 
psalmodies,  in  hymns  and  responsories !" 

IDEA. 

In  times  as  these  did  the  Church  formulate  and  build  the  order  which 
we  still  possess  and  use  in  our  Chief  Service  and  which  forms  the  com- 
pletest  and  highest  expression  of  our  worship.  In  times  as  these,  also, 
did  it  produce  those  orders  which  we  style  the  Minor  Services.  Well  has 
it  been  remarked  (Herold),  that  the  term  "minor"  does  not  do  full 
justice  to  the  importance  of  these  services.  They  have  a  very  important 
office  to  fulfill,  and  especially  on  the  great  festival  days  do  they  serve  a 
notable  purpose.  They  must  lead  the  souls  into  the  proper  festival  atti- 
tude, they  must  waft  over  hill  and  dale  the  last  dying  echoes  of  the  fes- 
tival bells,  they  must  give  definite  expression  to  certain  shades  and 
thoughts  of  the  holy  day.  Thus,  then,  the  day  stands  in  its  completeness, 
reflecting  all  the  beauty  of  the  festival  which  it  celebrates,  a  lofty 
mountain,  not  rising  in  isolation  from  the  arid  plain,  but  surrounded  on 
all  sides  by  the  variety  of  hills  and  forests,  a  delight  to  the  beholders. 
But  if  this  is  pre-eminently  true  of  the  great  festival  days,  it  must  be 
seen  that  every  Sunday  which,  as  the  Lord's  Day,  is  a  festival  day,  the 
same  truth  applies,  and  that  as  it  has  its  own  particular  thought,  so  it 
also  needs  its  Minor  Services  to  emphasize  that  thought  and  give  to  it 
the  proper  relations  of  shade  and  color. 

We  believe  that  it  is  not  only  well  to  observe  the  Church  Year,  but 
to  five  in  it.  We  know  how  by  its  arrangement  the  whole  history  of  re- 
demption becomes  a  matter  of  our  soul's  experience.  It  does  not  become  so, 
however,  if  we  observe  merely  the  special  Introit,  Collect  and  Lessons 
of  the  day  at  the  Chief  Service,  and  leave  the  rest  to  itself.  There  is  far 
more  than  that  to  observe  and  it  is  brought  to  us  in  the  Matins  and 
Vespers  of  the  day,,  as  well  as  in  the  Minor  Services  of  the  week.  But, 
observing  once  the  thought  in  the  daily  lessons  of  the  week,  receiving 
the  full  treasures  in  the  Chief  Service  on  Sunday,  and  as  the  evening 
comes  watching  the  ruddy  sunset  grow  paler  in  the  West  as  the  day's 
Vespers  are  celebrated,  the  soul  realizes  the  meaning  of  the  exclamation: 

"Here  in  the  body  pent 

Absent  from  Him  I  roam, 
Yet  nightly  pitch  my  moving  tent 
A  day's  march  nearer  home." 

What  else  can  be  the  object  of  our  worship  than  to  be  drawn  singly 
and  collectively  nearer  the  Father?  If  the  Church  has  its  great  mission 
in  its  testimony,  and  thereby  in  its  opposition  and  struggle  against  the 
world,  this  must  appear  sharply  defined  in  her  worship.  For  this  reason 
Christian  worship  presents  two  distinct  sides,  the  sacramental  and  the 
sacrificial,    the   objective    and   the   subjective   phase    of   redemption.     On 


5i 

the  one  hand  it  presents  the  grace  of  God  by  proclaiming  the  salvation 
of  Christ  in  order  to  draw  men  out  of  the  destruction  of  this  world.  On 
the  other  hand,  in  its  sacrificial  character,  it  cultivates  prayer  in  a 
wider  sense,  in  order  to  lead  those  who  are  drawn  from  the  world  to 
a  more  abounding  reception  and  retention  of  this  salvation.  In  the 
sacramental  side  of  worship  the  believer  receives,  in  the  other  he 
gives.  He  receives  the  Lord  in  the  blessings  of  the  Word  and  the 
Sacraments,  he  gives  his  soul  unto  him  in  the  acts  of  prayer  and  praise. 
By  this  power  of  public  worship  the  Church  has  gained  her  first  great 
victories  over  the  enemy,  the  arch-fiend,  and  by  the  same  power  it 
must  arise  continually  to  renewed  combat,  or  else  finally  yield  the  field 
to  the  foe. 

This  leads  to  the  consideration  of  the  idea  underlying  the  Minor 
Services  and  with  them  the  Vespers.  There  is  a  fundamental  distinc- 
tion between  the  Chief  Service  and  the  Minor  Services.  In  the  former  the 
sacramental  character  predominates.  Its  entire  order  has  the  object  of 
imparting  to  the  congregation  the  divine  gifts  of  grace  in  Word  and 
Sacrament.  All  its  acts  lead  up  to  this  fact  and  find  their  object  and 
their  importance  defined  by  it.  But  the  Minor  Services  have  pre- 
eminently a  sacrificial  character.  In  these  the  congregation  offers  the 
sacrifice;  it  is  itself,  or  rather,  it  offers  the  sacrifices  of  praising,  wor- 
shipping, repentant,  eager  and  devoted  hearts.  In  this  sense  they  are 
services  of  prayer.  But  our  weak  prayer  is  of  no  avail  if  it  has  not 
received  the  unction  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  by  means  of  the  Word  of 
God.  For  this  reason  Luther  ordered  that  such  singing  should  not  be 
done  with  the  mouth  alone  and  without  any  comprehension,  and  that, 
therefore,  Lessons  must  be  ordered  for  daily  reading.  It  is  to  be  ob- 
served in  these  services  that,  according  to  the  promise,  the  Word  of 
the  Lord  is  not  to  return  unto  Him  void.  The  hearts  are  to  be  awakened 
and  turned  to  Him.  Or.  as  Armknecht  further  observes,  the  Chief 
Service  offers  the  bread  of  life  to  the  hungry  ones  and  strengthens  and 
nourishes  them ;  but  the  Minor  Services  must  first  arouse  the  hunger  for 
this  bread.  Or,  also,  the  Chief  Sen-ice  draws  the  hearts  upward  to 
heaven,  to  a  life  with  God,  but  the  Minor  Services  must  lead  them  down 
into  the  depths  of  self-examination.  For  these  reasons  the  Chief  Service 
has  a  fixed,  definite  and  regular  order,  but  the  Minor  Services  are  subject 
to  the  conditions  of  time,  circumstances  and  object,  and  may.  therefore. 
move  in  a  freer  manner.  This  does  not  mean  that  they  are  subject  to 
no  law,  however,  but  from  the  very  idea  which  underlies  them  it  must  be 
seen,  that  they  too,  must  follow  a  certain  plan  and  that  all  their  parts 
must  be  connected  with  a  certain  object  in  view,  and  must,  therefore, 
have  a  distinct  relation  to  each  other  and  to  the  whole. 

If  then,  there  is  this  distinction  between  the  Chief  Service  and  the 
Minor  Services,  we  may  well  ask,  Is  there  also  a  fundamental  distinction 
in  the  underlying  ideas  of  the  order  for  Matins  and  Vespers?  There  is, 
indeed,  such  a  distinction,  though  ic  is  not  directly  apparent  upon  casual 
examination.  It  is  rather  from  the  history  of  our  orders  of  service 
that  we  can  learn  what  was  really  implied,  and  in  our  examination  of  the 
history  it  may  appear  how  we  came  to  have  the  treasures  which  now 


52 

belong  to  us.  But  in  reply  to  this  question  we  must  somewhat  antici- 
pate the  examination. 

The  distinction  between  our  orders  for  Matins  and  those  for  Ves- 
pers is  rooted  in  the  distinction  made  by  the  ancient  Church  in  the 
hours  of  prayer  and  meditation.  It  was  early  the  custom  to  celebrate  eight 
different  hours  of  prayer.     In  regard  to  this  Loehe  says  succinctly : 

''The  eight  horse  are  not  repetitions  of  one  and  the  same  form,  as 
perhaps  that  of  Matins ;  but  each  hora  has  its  individual  character  and 
all  together  form  a  net  compactly  joined  and  devised  to  hallow  and 
glorify  the  whole  day.  The  Matins  are  still  a  part  of  the  night.  Their 
characteristic  mark  is  the  meditation  on  the  divine  Word,  which  is 
extensively  read  in  this  hora.  The  Laudes  mark  the  wakening  of  the 
morn.  When  the  morning  comes  and  the  birds  and  all  of  nature  burst 
forth  in  song  then  the  Laudes  begin  the  praise  of  the  Creator  and  Re- 
deemer. Praise  of  God  and  only  praise  is  the  mark  of  this  hour.  The 
Prime  belongs  to  the  real  hour  of  the  morning  when  man  enters  upon  his 
daily  tasks  and  duties  and  again  enters  the  struggles  and  combats  of 
life.  This  hour  is  marked  by  the  prayer  of  petition.  The  Tertia  (9 
o'clock),  Sexta  (12  o'clock),  and  Nona  (3  o'clock),  hallow  forenoon, 
noon  and  afternoon,  have  the  same  arrangement,  the  character  of 
prayer,  and  with  the  Prime  share  the  119th  Psalm  as  if  during  the 
work  and  the  sweat  of  the  day  the  soul  were  to  be  continually  directed  to 
the  testimonies  of  the  Holy  Word.  The  Vespers  look  back  upon  the 
course  of  the  day,  they  close  it,  collect  the  soul  from  its  diversions,  toils 
and  cares,  and  finally  rise  to  praise  and  thanksgiving  for  all  protection 
and  for  all  the  riches  of  the  grace  of  God.  The  Completorium  looks  for- 
ward into  the  night,  into  its  terrors,  the  works  of  darkness.  Now  comes  the 
real  evening  prayer  in  which  the  Christian  commends  himself  into  the 
safe  hands  of  his  Lord." 

It  is  upon  this  order  of  observance  that  our  orders  of  Matins  and 
Vespers  are  based.  The  Matins  include  with  us  all  the  hours  of  the 
morning  and  forenoon,  the  Vespers  all  of  the  afternoon  and  evening. 
In  general  we  may  say  that,  like  the  early  Church,  we  observe  Matins 
in  order  to  petition,  Vespers  in  order  to  thank.  To  both  Services  the 
acts  of  praise  are  common,  but  with  this  distinction,  that  in  the  Matins 
God  is  praised  as  the  Creator.  We  share  there  in  the  praise  of  all  nature, 
with  the  early  beams  of  light,  the  jubilant  note  of  the  feathered  songster; 
we  remember  "when  the  morning  stars  sang  together,  and  all  the 
sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy"  (Job.  387).  In  the  evening  the 
praise  is  different.  When  the  light  of  day  departs  the  sunset  tarries  in 
ruddy  splendor  in  the  evening  clouds  and  the  shadows  grow  longer,  the 
praise  is  rendered  to  God  for  the  spiritual  benefits  of  the  day,  the  heart  is 
ready  to  magnify  the  Lord  for  His  mercies  or  to  commend  the  soul 
to  Him  in  the  departing  words  of  the  aged  saint.  The  prayer,  also, 
is  common  to  both  Services,  but  in  the  morning  it  is  for  protection  from 
sin  and  danger  and  for  the  governance  of  all  our  doings.  In  the 
quietude  of  evening  and  the  gentle  stillness  of  night  it  is  for  that  peace 
which  the  world  cannot  give  and  for  the  deliverance  from  the  fear  of 
all  our  enemies.     Thus,  too,  all  the  remaining  parts  of  these  two  Services 


53 

have  their  distinct  reference  to  the  dominant  idea,  prepare  the  way  for 
it  and  make  it  the  more  prominent  by  dwelling  upon  it. 

HISTORY. 

Having  thus  seen  the  distinct  idea  which  underlies  our  order  of 
Vespers  as  a  form  of  service  for  public  devotion,  we  may  well  ask  how 
came  we,  as  a  Church,  to  all  these  observances?  Have  we  any  particular 
right  to  claim  them  as  our  possession?  Nay,  more,  have  we  any  par- 
ticular duty  to  observe  in  this  respect?  Is  all  this  an  inheritance  which 
we  may  justly  cherish  and  turn  to  legitimate  uses,  or  is  our  order  of 
Vespers  an  innovation  of  later  days?  Did  it  grow  as  a  branch  with 
leaves  and  blossoms  and  fruit  upon  the  tree  of  our  Church,  or  is  it  an 
extraneous  growth  in  some  way  ingrafted  upon  it?  To  every  intelligent 
Lutheran  there  is  but  one  answer  to  all  this.  He  need  not  content  him- 
self with  the  general  statement  that  whatever  is  has  a  reason  for  being. 
With  our  Vesper  Service,  as  well  as  with  all  the  observances  and  doc- 
trines of  our  Church,  the  reasons  for  being  are  rooted  in  a  deep,  rich 
soil.  What  we  possess  in  all  our  treasures  as  a  Church  is  the  product  of 
a  sure  and  steady  growth.  It  has  its  roots  in  early  Apostolic  days,  nay 
more,  its  seeds  come  to  us  from  Moses  and  the  prophets ;  it  has  been 
watered  and  sunned  in  the  tender  mercies  of  God,  it  has  grown  strong  in 
resisting  the  stormy  blasts  of  intolerance  and  persecution.  So  also,  just 
as  our  doctrines,  our  usages,  our  hymns,  our  prayers  have  had  their 
history  and  are  justified  by  this  history,  so  also  the  forms  of  worship 
which  distinguish  our  Church  are  no  new  thing,  but  have  been  the 
common  property  of  the  early  Christian  Church  and  have  been  vindicated 
to  the  Lutheran  Church  by  Luther  and  the  other  great  reformers.  While 
the  Chief  Service  was  built  up  entirely  in  reference  to  the  holy 
mystery  of  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  and  everything  in  it 
was  made  subservient  and  conducive  to  its  proper  celebration  and  re- 
ception, the  Minor  Services,  which  are  of  a  sacrificial  nature,  arose  in  a 
similar  way  from  the  acts  of  sacrifice  daily  celebrated  by  the  chosen 
people.  They,  too,  were  to  be,  and  among  the  early  Christians  really 
were,  daily  sacrifies.  We  read  in  Exod.  29:38,  seq.  and  Num.  28:3, 
seq.  that  a  continual  morning  and  evening  sacrifice  was  offered  in 
the  temple  "for  a  sweet  savour,  an  offering  made  by  fire  unto  the  Lord," 
and  that  the  Lord  promised  "there  I  will  meet  with  the  children  of 
Israel  and  the  tabernacle  shall  be  sanctified  by  my  glory.  .  .  .  And  I 
will  dwell  among  the  children  of  Israel  and  will  be  their  God."  In  this 
practice  of  morning  and  evening  sacrifice  we  must  recognize  the  origin  of 
our  Matins  and  Vespers.  (Armknecht.)  According  to  the  tradition  re- 
corded in  the  Talmud  there  were  added  to  this  sacrifice  of  the  lambs  and 
of  incense,  several  prayers  and  the  recitation  of  the  commandments 
and  the  Scripture  passages  marked  on  the  phylacteries.  Some  of  these 
prayers  have  been  preserved  in  the  Talmud.  Some  of  them  were  prayed 
by  the  people  and  were  named  according  to  the  initial  words.  One  of 
them  called  the  DlStP  0^  (da  pacem),  is  the  Collect  for  Peace  of  our 
Vesper  Service.  Even  the  benediction,  "The  Lord  bless  thee  and  keep 
thee"   (Num.  6:24),  was  in  constant  use,  and  the  people   responded  by 


54 

saying  ''Blessed  be  God,  the  Lord  God  of  Israel,  for  ever  and  ever."' 
Then  followed  the  meat  and  drink  offering  alternated  by  the  music  and 
the  choirs,  ending  with  the  sound  of  the  trumpets,  giving  the  signal  to 
the  people  to  bow  in  prayer  to  God,  until  the  music  ended  and  the 
people  returned  home.  These  daily  morning  and  evening  sacrifices  were 
provided  with  a  rich  liturgy,  according  to  the  Talmud,  and  we  can  easily 
see  in  them  the  basis  upon  which  the  early  Christians  built  their  morn- 
ing and  evening  devotions,  by  omitting  features  that  were  specifically 
Jewish  and  introducing  such  as  had  real  Christian  significance.  In 
what  manner  this  was  originally  done,  we  know  not,  but  we  find  in  the 
book  of  Acts  various  references  to  hours  of  prayer  observed  by  the 
Apostles,  e.  g.,  Acts  1:14:  "These  all  continued  with  one  accord  in 
prayer."  This  reference  is  made  clearer  by  Acts  2:46:  "And  they, 
continuing  daily  with  one  accord  in  the  temple  and  breaking  bread 
from  house  to  house,  did  eat  their  meat  with  gladness  and  singleness  of 
heart."  From  this  it  would  appear,  as  is  the  opinion  of  commentators, 
that  the  Apostles  in  the  beginning  observed  the  Jewish  times  and  forms 
of  worship.  However  that  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  they,  too,  met  for 
daily  prayer,  as  we  see  admonitions  like  Eph.  5:19-20  and  Col.  3:16-17. 
"Speaking  one  to  another  in  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs, 
singing  and  making  melody  with  your  heart  unto  the  Lord,  giving 
thanks  always  for  all  things  in  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  In 
the  third  century  we  find  definite  injunctions  in  the  Apostolic  Con- 
stitutions in  regard  to  morning  and  evening  devotions.  Chapter  2:59 
we  read,  "Command  the  people,  oh  bishop,  and  admonish  them  to  as- 
semble in  church  in  the  morning  and  evening  of  every  day;  and  further, 
do  not  prefer  worldly  pursuits  to  the  Word  of  God,  but  assemble  your- 
selves in  the  morning  and  evening  of  every  day,  singing  and  praying  in 
the  Lord's  house,  in  the  morning  Ps.  63,  in  the  evening  Ps.  141." 

Among  the  Jews  three  hours  of  prayer  were  in  vogue  from  the 
earliest  times,  the  third  was  ascribed  to  Abraham,  the  sixth  to  Isaac, 
the  ninth  to  Jacob,  but  among  these  the  morning  and  evening  hours 
were  devoted  to  public  worship;  and  the  noon  hour  to  private  devotions. 
For  the  Christians  it  was  important  that  our  Lord's  final  suffering  and 
death  came  at  the  third,  sixth  and  ninth  hour.  Accordingly  we  are  told 
that  the  Apostles  were  assembled  for  prayer  in  the  third  hour,  when 
they  received  the  Holy  Ghost  (Acts  2:15);  that  Peter  went  up  upon 
the  house-top  to  pray  about  the  sixth  hour  (Acts  10:9);  and  that  Peter 
and  John  were  going  up  into  the  temple  at  the  hour  of  prayer,  it  being 
the  ninth  hour.  From  these  statements  we  are  justified  in  the  con- 
clusion that  the  Apostles  observed  the  morning  and  evening  prayer  in 
the  temple  and  devoted  the  noon  to  private  devotions.  In  course  of  time 
these  three  regular  hours  no  longer  satisfied  the  religious  wants  of  the 
Church  and  gradually  a  complete  system  of  eight  prayer  hours  came 
into  use  and  was  observed  by  the  clergy  in  general  and  the  occupants 
of  convents  and  monasteries  in  particular.  It  would  carry  us  too  far 
to  enter  into  a  detailed  explanation  of  this  system  of  hours  of  prayer,  but 
it  must  be  remembered  that  they,  too,  served  a  certain  purpose  and  that 
when  our  Reformers  ordered  our  forms  for  Matins  and  Vespers,  they 


55 

found  themselves  constrained  to  embody  in  them  certain  features  of 
the  ancient  system  as  appears  from  the  idea  underlying  our  Matin  and 
Vesper  Service.  Accordingly  we  find  this  order  of  development  of  the 
order  of  Vespers: 

In  the  third  century:  Ps.  141  for  the  beginning,  and  containing 
the  Agnus  and  Nunc  Dimittis,  with  the  evening  prayer:  "Praise  the 
Lord,  oh  ye  His  servants." 

In  the  fifth  century:     The  Kyrie  is  added  and  the  Agnus  is  omitted. 

In  the  sixth  century:  The  Responses  are  added,  and  in  Africa  a 
sermon  is  preached. 

Under  Gregory  the  First  (604),  both  Matins  and  Vespers  have  the 
complete  form  which  prevails  to  this  day  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

When  finally  our  Lutheran  Church  separated  from  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church,  it  was  by  no  means  the  intention  of  the  Reformers  to  do 
away  with  the  services  heretofore  in  use  or  to  abbreviate  them.  The 
sole  rule  which  they  proposed  for  their  guidance  was  the  same  one  which 
had  proven  so  safe  in  the  matter  of  doctrine,  namely,  to  purge  away  all 
false  usage  and  all  errors  that  might  damn  the  soul.  Following  this 
rule,  Luther  took  great  exception  to  the  Mass  as  containing  a  false  prin- 
ciple, that  of  a  continual  sacrifice  of  the  body  of  the  Lord;  but  he 
found  nothing  to  object  to  in  the  ancient  system  of  the  hours,  especially 
the  Matins,  Vespers  and  Completorium,  and  declared  that  with  the 
exception  of  the  order  for  saints'  days,  they  contained  nothing  that 
could  not  be  borne  and  abounded  in  words  from  the  Scriptures.  He  and 
all  the  other  Reformers  agreed  that  the  people  stood  greatly  in  need 
of  daily  services  to  acquaint  themselves  with  the  Scriptures  and  foster 
their  spiritual  growth.  However,  as  in  the  holding  of  these  services  they 
saw  the  means  for  the  edification  of  the  people,  they  saw  no  need  of  the 
observance  of  the  hours,  as  the  people  had  never  taken  part  in  this,  and 
Luther,  in  his  sharp  manner,  had  expressed  himself  strongly  against 
"barking  at  empty  walls."  Besides,  a  Church  whose  vital  principle  of 
faith  was  the  free  grace  of  God  could  make  no  matter  of  legal  observance 
of  any  such  worship.  Hence,  Luther  fixed  upon  the  Matins  and  Vespers 
alone,  combining  with  the  former  the  Laudes,  with  the  latter  the  Com- 
pletorium. In  his  Gottesdienst  Ordnung,  1523,  he  says:  "Such  has  been 
the  custom  among  Christians  in  the  days  of  the  Apostles,  and  ought  to 
be  still,  namely,  that  every  morning  at  four  or  five  o'clock  one  ought 
to  assemble,  and  priests  or  pupils  should  read  the  lesson  as  is  cus- 
tomary in  the  Matins,  either  one  or  two  at  a  time  or  alternately,  or 
choirs  alternately."  Then  the  minister  or  whoever  is  appointed,  shall 
arise  and  give  a  brief  exposition  of  the  same  lesson.  Having  then  pre- 
scribed the  order  to  be  observed  in  the  morning,  he  continues:  "In  the 
same  manner  meet  again  in  the  evening  at  five  or  six  o'clock.  And  here 
also  resume  the  reading  of  one  book  after  the  other  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, namely,  the  prophets,  just  as  in  the  morning  Moses  and  the  his- 
tories. But,  as  the  New  Testament  is  also  a  [divine]  book,  I  leave  the 
Old  Testament  for  the  morning  and  the  New  Testament  for  the  evening, 
or  vice  versa,  and  read,  expound,  praise,  sing  and  pray  as  in  the  morning 
for  an  hour's  time.  For  the  object  is  the  cultivation  of  God's  Word  that 
it  may  edify  the  souls  and  refresh  them  lest  they  grow  weary." 


56 

The  sum  of  Luther's  directions  was  this,  that  first  of  all  Psalms 
should  be  sung  by  the  pupils  or  the  priests.  The  selection  of  these  is  to 
be  made  weekly  by  the  ministers,  who  ought  also  to  determine  the  ap- 
propriate Antiphons  and  Responsories.  The  service  is  to  be  concluded 
with  prayer,  praise,  thanksgiving  in  Psalms,  Antiphons,  Responsories 
and  Collects.  From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  our  great  Reformer  did 
not  take  the  pains  to  formulate  a  definite  and  invariable  order  of 
Matins  and  Vespers,  but  that  his  chief  concern  was  that  it  shoald  con- 
tain some  Psalms,  some  regular  lessons,  some  appropriate  collects. 
However,  he  laid  great  stress  on  the  keeping  of  these  services  and  does 
not  worry  if  at  first  there  is  only  a  small  number  of  participants,  pro- 
vided only  that  the  priests  and  pupils  be  present,  especially  those  who 
are  to  become  ministers  and  pastors.  Only  Sundays  he  expects  a  large 
concourse  of  people,  adding  this  observation:  "It  is  most  important  for 
plain  people  and  the  young  who  ought  and  must  daily  be  trained  and 
practiced  in  the  Scriptures  and  the  Word  of  God,  so  that  they  may 
become  accustomed  to  the  Scripture,  skilled,  learned  in  it  and  familiar 
with  it,  so  that  they  may  defend  their  faith,  in  time  teach  others  and 
help  to  increase  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  For  their  sake  one  must  read, 
sing,  preach,  write  and  compose,  and  if  there  were  any  profit  or  ad- 
vantage in  it,  I  would  have  them  ring  all  the  bells,  play  all  the  organs 
and  sound  every  possible  instrument." 

Just  as  eager  as  Luther  himself  were  his  co-laborers  and  the 
various  KOO  and  ecclesiastical  regulations  of  those  days  bear 
testimony  to  the  fact  that  there  was  a  great  earnestness  of  churchly 
discipline,  order  and  practice.  It  is  not  surprising  that  through 
such  practices  a  generation  was  reared  that  never  forgot  the  deep  im- 
pressions thus  made  upon  them  in  their  childhood.  They  could  never 
lose  the  oft-heard  lessons,  the  Psalms  and  Evangelical  hymns  which 
they  so  frequently  sang,  the  prayers  they  prayed  and  the  catechism  they 
recited.  In  these  daily  Minor  Services  lay  the  strength  of  that  generation, 
and  we  need  not  wonder  that  from  it  came  our  great  dogmaticians,  our 
noble  hymn-writers  and  the  great  defenders  of  our  faith. 

But.  though  the  Church  possessed  this  power  in  its  Services,  the 
gradual  changes  of  time  finally  proved  disastrous  in  this  particular.  The 
Chief  Service  in  the  form  preserved  in  our  Church  Book  lived  for  gen- 
erations and  survived  even  the  ravages  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  The 
Minor  Services,  however,  never  were  the  property  of  the  people  as 
such,  but  rather  only  of  the  schools.  So,  too,  our  order  of  Vespers 
never  obtained  a  firm  footing  in  the  churches,  but  was  observed  mainly 
in  the  Lutheran  institutions  of  learning.  Therein  lies  the  chief  reason 
why,  for  a  time,  it  was  practically  lost  to  the  Church,  or  rather  buried 
in  a  napkin.  Too  much  was  made  in  its  observance  of  the  matter  of 
language.  For  the  practice  of  the  boys  the  Psalms  were  originally 
chanted  only  in  Latin.  The  consequence  was  that  when  Latin  was  no 
longer  so  universally  studied  nor  so  easily  acquired,  all  the  treasures  of 
devotion  of  the  Minor  Services  became  unintelligible  to  the  boys  and  no 
longer  served  their  purpose.  Besides,  there  was  no  master  found 
who  could  transcribe  the  German  text  to  the  tones  used  for  the  Latin 


57 

singing,  and  as  the  people  could  not  take  part  they  were  gradually 
crowded  out.  Besides,  the  rules  of  this  singing,  too,  were  finally  more 
and  more  forgotten  among  the  Lutheran  clergy  and  those  who  were 
to  instruct  the  young,  which,  in  course  of  time,  led  to  the  abandonment 
of  the  chanting  itself.  Thirdly,  there  were  no  positive  directions  clearly 
defining  the  limits  of  these  Services,  and  as  Luther  had  left  the  matter 
to  the  ministers  themselves,  any  one  could  arrange  them  to  his  own 
taste,  providing  he  retained  a  resemblance  to  the  type  of  ecclesiastical 
hours.  Owing  to  the  operation  of  these  causes,  as  well  as  to  the  influ- 
ence of  Pietism  and  Rationalism,  in  spite  of  the  many  directions  of 
KOO,  the  order  of  Matins  grew  entirely  into  disuse,  and  the  Vespers 
lingered  only  in  stray  observances  of  afternoon  and  evening  services,  in 
catechismal  services,  and  in  confessional  services  preparatory  to  the  Lord's 
Supper. 

It  was  only  in  the  present  century,  upon  the  revival  of  true  Lutheran- 
ism  in  Germany,  that  renewed  attention  was  given  to  these  treasures  of 
the  Church,  and  the  principles  were  studied  which  underlie  these  services. 
Then  attempts  were  made  to  re-introduce  the  order  of  Vespers  in  the 
form  of  festival  services  and  in  private  publications. 

In  our  own  country  the  General  Council  has  done  much  toward  re- 
establishing the  old  orders  of  the  Church,  and  only  on  the  close  study 
of  the  history  of  the  Service  and  examination  of  the  state  in  which 
the  matter  was  found  by  the  committee  can  we  fully  estimate 
and  appreciate  at  their  real  value  the  enormous  labors  of  the  men  who 
ha\e  given  to  the  Church  in  America  the  Services  as  she  posseses  them. 

STRUCTURE. 

It  remains  yet  to  examine  the  Vesper  Service  as  to  its  structure.  Let 
us  arrange  it  according  to  the  parts  of  which  it  is  necessarily  composed 
according  to  the  order  in  our  Church  Book.  The  component  parts 
there  stand  as  follows:  Versicle  (with  Gloria  Patri),  Psalm  (with  Gloria 
Patri),  Lesson  (with  response).  Sermon,  Hymn,  Versicle,  Canticle, 
Prayer,  Benediction.  This  is  the  bare  order  from  which  we  can  see  the 
frame-work  which  gives  the  body  to  the  whole  structure.  It  has  been 
observed  before  that  the  Vesper  Service  is  mainly  sacrificial,  being  a  ser- 
vice of  prayer,  praise  and  thanksgiving;  but  that  in  order  that  our 
prayer  may  be  a  truly  efficient  one.  guided  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  our  Service 
contains  the  offering  of  the  Word.  A  glance  at  our  analysis  of  the  Service 
bears  out  this  assertion.  We  see,  furthermore,  how  evenly  it  is  divided 
into  the  sacramental  part  of  the  Word,  the  sacrificial  one  of  prayer  and 
praise.  First,  the  offering  of  the  Word  in  Psalms,  Lessons,  and  Address. 
The  Versicle  and  Responses  serve  to  introduce,  connect,  and  give  the 
proper  relation  of  one  part  to  another.  Then  comes  the  offer  from  the 
congregation  in  hymn.  Canticle  and  prayer,  with,  of  course,  the  necessary 
Versicles  and  responses. 

But  this  is  merely  a  skeleton.  We  do  not  behold  the  living  flesh, 
we  cannot  see  the  graceful  movement,  the  animation  of  speech.  Our 
Service  is  endowed  with  a  life  of  its  own.  that  makes  it  truly  the  expres- 
sion of  the  congregation's  worship.     This  we  will   see  more  clearly  on 


58 

examining  the  single  parts  that  compose  it.  First  in  order  stand  the 
Versicles,  or  as  Schoeberlein  calls  them,  the  opening  antiphons.  These 
selections  were  made  in  the  earliest  days  of  the  Church.  We  meet  them 
in  the  Order  of  Horae  of  Benedict  of  Nursia  (529),  and  thence  transcribed 
in  the  Breviary  of  Gregory  the  Great  (604).  The  first,  ''Oh,  Lord,  open 
Thou  my  lips  and  my  mouth  shall  show  forth  Thy  praise,"  is  from  Ps. 
51:17.  The  second,  "Make  haste,  O  God,  to  deliver  me;  make  haste 
to  help  me,  O  Lord,"  Ps.  70:2.  In  some  orders  the  order  of 
arrangement  varies,  but  both  verses  were  used,  together  with  the  Gloria 
Patri,  to  which  was  added  the  Hallelujah.  For  the  Passion  season,  when 
the  Hallelujah,  which  is  the  expression  of  Easter  joy,  is  to  be  omitted, 
many  ancient  Liturgies  have  the  ascription  of  praise:  "Praise  be  to  Thee, 
O  Christ,  King  of  eternal  glory."  These  are  the  Versicles  for  ordinary 
occasions,  but  if  there  is  to  be  a  festival  Vesper,  other  Versicles  may  be 
used.  It  has  fitly  been  said  (Herold)  that  the  Versicles,  Responses  and 
Antiphons  are  the  signal  calls  of  the  festival.  They  are  the  festival  banner, 
raised  ever  and  anon  to  express  boldly  and  briefly  the  principal  thought 
of  the  festival.  They  animate  the  service  and  arouse  and  hold  attention 
continually.  The  Psalmody  following  now,  is  the  principal  characteristic 
of  the  Minor  Services.  In  the  Vesper  Service  it  follows  immediately 
after  the  opening  versicles.  The  singing  of  Psalms  found  its  way  into 
the  Church  service  from  the  worship  of  the  Temple.  We  know  from 
the  testimony  of  the  Scripture,  that  it  was  very  impressive,  nay,  even 
overpowering.  To  pass  by  Moses  and  Samuel  (who  cultivated  this  sing- 
ing in  the  schools  of  the  prophets),  we  find  David  the  master  of  the 
divine  song,  who  introduced  it  into  the  worship  of  the  Temple.  Think 
of  the  4,000  singers  of  the  Lord,  among  them  288  masters,  arranged  in 
24  classes,  over  them  the  three  masters,  Asaph,  Heman  and  Jeduthun, 
and  over  them  the  King  himself.  Think  of  the  Levites  robed  in  linen, 
singing  with  cymbals,  psalteries,  harps,  and  the  priests  with  trumpets. 
In  truth,  when  we  read  of  the  glorious  services  of  the  Lord,  and  of 
the  magnificent  arrangement  of  music,  musicians  and  instruments  for 
the  proper  rendering  of  the  Psalms,  we  must  admit  that  our  services 
still  fall  far  short  of  praising  the  Almighty  as  we  should,  and  that  we  may 
well  study  how  we  may  do  this  to  greater  effect.  It  is  no  wonder  that 
the  early  Church  continued  the  singing  of  Psalms  in  her  services  and  de- 
votion. The  New  Testament  bears  frequent  witness  to  the  singing  of 
Psalms.  To  Pliny  we  are  indebted  for  the  information  that  it  was  anti- 
phonal,  and  all  the  Church  Fathers  relate  how  highly  the  Church  valued 
this  manner  of  singing.  There  was  a  special  office  of  precentor — he 
started  the  singing  of  the  Psalm,  and  the  congregation  responded  hypo- 
phonically  (with  the  closing  words  of  each  verse)  or  epiphonemically 
(with  Amen,  or  Hallelujah,  or  Gloria  Patri)  or  antiphonally.  The  manner 
of  rendering  was  recitative  singing,  all  words  according  to  the  natural  ac- 
cent, to  one  tone.  The  closing  with  the  Gloria  Patri  dates  from  the 
time  of  Damasus  (t  384).  It  was  originally  simpler  in  form,  but  was 
expanded,  on  account  of  the  Anti-Trinitarian  agitations. 

The    singing   of   Psalms   was   universally   adopted    in    the    Lutheran 
Church.     The  number  sung  at  Vespers  was  early  limited  by  Luther  to 


59 

three.  The  most  usual  choice  was  Ps.  1-109  for  Matins;  110-150  (except 
119)  for  Vespers.  Before  and  after  the  Psalms  an  Antiphon  was  usually 
sung,  which  was  taken  from  the  Psalm  used,  from  the  lesson  of  the  day, 
or  some  other  text  of  Scripture,  or  sometimes  by  exception  framed  aftei 
a  Scripture  text.  Luther  had  left  the  choice  of  Antiphons  to  the  bishops, 
only  warning  them  against  monotony  or  too  much  change.  Soon, 
however,  definite  changes  were  made,  and  Antiphons  selected  according 
to  time  of  service,  season  of  Church  Year,  or  nature  of  service.  The  object 
of  the  Lessons  was  to  cover  the  entire  body  of  Scripture  during  the 
services  of  the  Church  Year.  At  the  Minor  Services  in  the  Roman 
Church,  all  those  parts  were  read  that  were  not  used  in  the  service  of  the 
Mass.  Luther  took  up  the  plan  of  continuous  reading,  beginning  on 
one  day  where  it  had  been  left  off  the  day  before,  recommending  "quite 
long  lessons,  in  order  to  instruct  the  young  thoroughly."  He,  too,  ordered 
that  the  whole  Scriptures  should  be  read,  and  soon  made  the  division 
between  the  portions  for  the  Matins  and  those  for  the  Vespers.  He  de- 
parted, however,  from  the  accustomed  order  in  making  his  selection 
have  reference  not  so  much  to  the  Church  Year  as  to  the  days  of  the 
week,  and  to  include  the  Catechism  in  the  order  of  lessons.  The  KOO 
followed  Luther  in  so  far  as  to  reserve  one  text  for  the  Matins,  the  other 
for  the  Vespers.  In  regard  to  liturgical  usage,  it  may  be  mentioned 
that  three  lessons  may  be  read.  According  to  our  usage,  the  response, 
"Oh,  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us,"  with  the  corresponding  part,  "Thanks 
be  to  Thee,  O  God,"  follows  every  lesson  except  the  last,  and  after  the 
last  may  follow  a  responsory  or  hymn.  According  to  some  orders  a 
responsory  may  follow  every  lesson. 

What,  then,  is  this  Responsory?  It  is  a  short  sentence,  consisting  of 
two  parts,  the  real  responsory  and  a  versus,  which  is  so  arranged  that 
its  close  fits  into  the  part  of  the  responsory  which  is  repeated.  It  is 
usually  taken  from  the  lesson,  and  states  succinctly  the  principal  thought 
in  it,  or  also  the  thought  of  the  day.  It  is  named  responsory  mainly  from 
the  fact  of  its  being  an  assent  to  the  idea  of  the  lesson.  The  respon- 
sories  have  not  yet  received  much  attention,  and  yet  they  are  an  important 
factor  in  the  Service.  They  give  the  musical  expression  to  fhe  thought 
in  the  lesson,  and  really  afford  the  modern  choir  the  widest  and  most  useful 
field  of  activity. 

The  Hymn  may  take  the  place  of  the  Responsory,  and  may  be  used 
after  the  sermon  in  the  real  sacrificial  part  of  the  service.  The  hymn 
is  a  song,  consisting  of  regular  versification,  but  it  must  be  of  an  exalted 
character  in  so  far  that  in  its  metre  it  may  correspond  to  the  measure 
and  in  its  rhyme  to  the  euphony  of  the  thought  to  be  celebrated.  It 
is  the  office  of  the  hymn  to  deepen  and  confirm  the  reception  of  the 
Divine  Word  that  has  been  read.  Hence,  it  ought  to  be  selected  with 
reference  to  the  lesson  preceding  it.  It  is  the  immediate  answer  of  a 
receptive  faith.  The  Lord  speaks,  and  immediately  follows  the  response 
of  faith.  The  hymn  is  the  thanks  to  God  for  His  Word,  and  justly  so 
expressed  first  in  the  immediate  expression  of  emotion  as  carried  by 
music,  just  as  later  in  the  service  in  the  acts  of  prayer.  The  opening 
hymn  ought  to  be  the  most  general   (containing  a  prayer  for  the  forgive- 


6o 

ness  of  sins),  best  of  all  an  invocation  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  hymn 
after  the  lesson,  and  the  one  after  the  sermon  bears  a  directer  reference 
to  the  festival  thought  itself;  but  the  latter  is  not  merely  a  song  of  praise; 
it  may  contain  strong  elements  of  petition,  so  that  Loehe  calls  it  an  inspired 
cry  for  help.  If  there  is  also  a  closing  hymn,  it  is  to  consider  the  blessings 
of  redemption,  the  fruit  of  life,  and  the  hope  of  eternity. 

The  Sermon  is  not  an  integral  part  of  the  Vesper  Service.  It  may 
be  omitted  without  mutilating  it.  According  to  the  custom  of  the 
Reformers,  a  sermon  was  preached  at  Matins  and  Vespers  only  on  Sun- 
days, and  occasional  festival  days  during  the  week;  but  at  the  daily  Vespers 
the  custom  was  followed  of  adding  a  brief  summary  or  review  to  each 
lesson,  expounding  it  in  the  simplest  and  most  succinct  manner.  Later 
KOO  introduced  the  expounding  of  the  Catechism.  This  began  with 
short  explanations  of  the  Catechism  for  the  children,  and  finally  merged 
into  catechetical  sermons  for  the  older  members.  The  place  of  these 
sermons,  as  they  had  grown  out  of  the  lesson  summaries,  was  thus  natu- 
rally fixed  between  the  Lessons  and  the  Canticle.  In  course  of  time  the 
sermon  was  preceded  and  followed  by  a  hymn. 

This  leads  us  in  direct  sequence  to  the  Canticle.  By  the  term  Canticle 
we  denote  antiphonal  hymns,  both  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  other 
than  the  Psalms.  They  were  in  early  use  in  the  Church,  being  found  in 
the  arrangements  for  daily  devotion  of  Benedict  of  Nursia,  and  of  Gregory 
the  Great.  The  Lutheran  Church  uses  all  of  the  Canticles  of  the  Bible, 
beside  the  Te  Deum,  and  classes  them  as  minor  Psalms.  For  Vespers 
the  same  are  used  as  of  old.  namely,  the  Magnificat  as  originally  used, 
and  the  Nunc  Dimittis,  taken  from  the  Completorium.  Having  an 
abundance  to  choose  from,  many  KOO  selected  a  different  Canticle  for 
each  day,  but  this  custom  grew  into  disuse,  and  we  in  our  order  in  the 
Church  Book  have  the  choice  between  the  two.  Like  the  major  Psalms, 
the  Canticles,  too,  may  be  followed  by  corresponding  antiphons. 

The  Magnificat  is  Mary's  psalm  of  praise,  from  Luke  1:46-55.  It 
was  used  in  the  Lutheran  Church  from  the  beginning,  first  in  Latin, 
then  in  German.  It  was  even  sung  to  all  psalm  tones,  but  the  favorite 
one  was  the  tonus  peregrinus,  as  being  best  known  to  the  congregation. 

The  Nunc  Dimittis  is  the  psalm  of  Simeon,  Luke  2:29-32.  It  was 
used  first  in  the  Completorium,  and  is  the  most  suitable  expression  of  the 
praises  of  the  congregation  for  the  mercies  of  the  day. 

The  Canticles  fitly  introduce  the  acts  of  prayer  properly  so-called. 
The  prayers  after  lessons  and  psalmody  are  the  third  chief  part  of  the 
Vesper  service.  They  are  the  most  immediate  and  the  clearest  expres- 
sion of  our  faith  in  God,  our  sacrifices,  our  speech  with  God,  our  parallel 
to  His  speech  with  us,  in  the  lessons.  The  prayers  are  not  to  be  used 
scantily,  nor  briefly.  It  is  not  decent  and  in  order  to  strive  to  hasten 
away  from  the  throne  of  God.  Where  the  New  Testament  mentions 
prayer,  the  words  used  are  mainly  in  the  plural:  prayers,  petitions, 
thanksgivings.  As  Herold  remarks,  the  scanty  and  begrudging  treatment 
of  prayer,  so  long  in  vogue,  has  contributed  not  a  little  to  the  present 
disregard  of  meditation  and  contemplation.  The  Christian  Church  should 
be  a  praying  Church.     "My  house  is  a  house  of  prayer,"  says  the  Lord. 


6i 

In  fact,  the  Church  has  a  magnificent  treasure  of  prayer  in  the  Collects 
she  has  prayed  for  centuries,  some  of  them  dating  back  even  to  the  wor- 
ship of  the  Temple.  It  is  but  fitting  that  these  should  be  used  in  our 
Services,  and  the  earliest  KOO  recommend  their  use.  Thus  it  was 
recommended  to  employ  several  collects  in  succession.  Several  collects 
are  corroborative  of  each  other.  They  contain  one  thought  of  prayer, 
always  introduced  by  the  invocation  of  God.  Three  collects  are  more 
animating  than  one  long  prayer.  Of  several  collects  the  first  is  to  be 
the  most  special,  the  last  most  general.  Hence,  the  use  of  the  collect 
for  the  festival,  i.  e.,  the  one  of  the  Sunday  throughout  the  whole  week. 
According  to  most  general  usage,  which  we  follow,  the  full  ending  is 
used  only  with  the  last.  The  directions  for  them  in  the  Church  Book 
are  too  explicit  to  need  mention  here.  As  to  the  position  in  the  Ser- 
vice, it  may  yet  be  remarked  that  as  here  the  prayer  is  the  culmina- 
tive  act,  it  is  fitly  introduced  by  the  Kyrie,  which  powerfully  implores 
the  mercies  of  God  for  His  assistance  in  this  act  of  devotion.  This  is 
followed  by  the  Lord's  Prayer,  which  most  fully  expresses  our  sonship, 
and  is  in  turn  followed  by  the  more  special  petitions  of  the  Collects. 
According  to  the  rule  stated  before,  the  last  collect  is  to  be  the  most 
general,  hence  we  use  the  ancient  Collect  for  Peace,  introduced  by  its 
own  versicle.  Versicles  may,  according  to  ancient  usage,  be  used  with 
any  and  all  of  the  collects,  but  a  too  frequent  use  of  them  scatters  the  at- 
tention, and  vitiates  the  objects  of  the  prayer. 

The  Service  is  closed  with  the  Benediction,  which  is  introduced  by  a 
festival  versicle,  which  for  our  Sunday  Vespers  is  fixed,  but  which  may 
be  varied  on  special  occasions.  This  versicle  is  the  last  faint  echo  of  the 
music  of  the  festival  day,  its  characteristic  chord  dying  away  in  the  evening 
stillness: 

"Yea,  Lord,  let  my  prayer  be  set  forth  before  Thee  as  incense,  and 
the  lifting  up  of  my  hands  as  the  evening  sacrifice." 


The  Gregorian  Element  in  Church  Music 


BY  THE    REV.  LUTHER  D.  REED. 


In  considering  "The  Gregorian  Element  in  Church  Music"  we  have 
to  deal  with  the  oldest  forms  of  music  of  the  Christian  Church.  We 
here  include  all  that  is  earlier  than  the  thirteenth  century  and  very  much 
that  is  later,  comprising  the  original  melodies  of  the  Liturgy  and  Psalm- 
ody. Inasmuch  as  "Psalmody,"  a  most  important  factor  of  the  Gregor- 
ian system,  forms  the  subject  of  a  separate  paper,  our  present  effort 
practically  resolves  itself  into  a  study  of  what  we  may  term  "The  Litur- 
gical Music  of  the  Church." 

The  chant-form,  as  affording  the  means  of  dignified  musical  recita- 
tion, has  ever  been  associated  with  common  and  prescribed  worship, 
even  among  the  most  primitive  peoples.  Song  and  liturgy  doubtless 
often  come  into  being  together.  It  is  certainly  not  too  much  to  assert 
that  the  Gregorian  chant  is  "a  projection  into  modern  art  of  the  altar 
song  of  Greece.  Judea  and  Egypt."  It  has  long  been  a  favorite  theory 
that  it  absorbed  two  chief  elements  which  flowed  like  tributary  streams 
from  Palestine  and  Hellas;  the  Hebrew  influence  giving  it  its  religious 
character,  and  the  Greek  art  defining  its  form  and  rules.  The  recent 
investigations  of  the  learned  musical  archaeologist,  Gevaert.  director  of 
the  Brussels  Conservatory  of  Music,  have  led  him  to  unhesitatingly  as- 
sert that  the  whole  Gregorian  system  had  its  origin  in  the  forms  of 
secular  music  of  Roman  society  in  the  days  of  the  Empire,  which  music 
had  in  turn  been  introduced  from  Greece  after  its  conquest  by  Rome, 
B.  C.  146.  Whatever  its  earliest  constituent  elements,  it  soon  developed 
a  distinctively  Christian  character,  and  formed  a  holy  alliance  with  the 
liturgy  that  has  never  been  dissolved.  Ambrose,  Bishop  of  Milan,  374- 
397.  is  said  to  have  collected  and  edited  the  melodies  already  in  existence 
and  to  have  clearly  defined  the  form  of  the  four  so-called  "authentic" 
scales  or  modes.  The  unquestioned  judgment  of  centuries  has  credited 
the  final  shaping  touch  that  gave  the  system  its  character  indelebilis  as 
the  liturgical  music  of  the  Church  to  Gregory  the  Great,  Pope  from 
590  to  604.  He  is  said  to  have  immeasurably  developed  the  powers  of 
the  art  by  the  addition  of  the  four  related  or  "plagal"  modes  in  which 
melodies  might  be  composed;  edited  and  increased  the  number  of 
chants,  giving  them  permanent  form  in  his  Antiphonarium.  which  con- 
tained the  ritual  song  for  the  completed  cycle  of  the  Church  Year  and 
which  was  fastened  to  the  altar  of  St.  Peter's  in  Rome  to  serve  as  the 
standard  for  the  rendering  of  the  Liturgy  throughout  the  entire  Church; 
and  to  have  established  a  singing  school  in  which  he  himself  taught. 
Modern    historical    criticism    has    rather    discredited    the    biography    of 

(63) 


64 

Gregory,  written  by  John  the  Deacon  about  the  year  872,  upon  whose 
assertions,  unsupported  by  any  documentary  or  other  evidence,  Gregory 
was  said  to  have  engaged  in  such  extensive  labors  in  behalf  of  the  Chant 
that  has  since  borne  his  name.  But  whether  it  was  the  molding  hand 
of  Gregory,  or  whether  he.  as  the  most  striking  figure  of  that  period, 
was  in  an  uncritical  age  credited  with  the  achievements  of  his  century, 
the  Chant  and  Liturgy  together  crystallized  into  more  or  less  permanent 
form.  Certain  melodies  became  inseparably  associated  with  certain 
words,  the  scales  or  modes  were  clearly  determined,  and  efforts  made 
to  secure  an  intelligible  and  accurate  musical  notation  and  to  spread 
the  use  of  the  melodies  according  to  the  Roman  practice  throughout 
the  bounds  of  the  Western  Church.  It  was  the  strong  hand  of  Charle- 
magne that  gave  the  first  great  impulse  toward  the  more  extended  prac- 
tice and  uniform  rendering  of  the  Chant  in  the  West.  He  was  not  only 
a  patron  of  knowledge  and  the  arts.  but.  doubtless  for  reasons  political 
as  well  as  personal  a  devoted  son  of  the  Church.  Upon  one  of  his 
several  visits  to  Rome  he  was  impressed  with  the  difference  between  the 
rendering  of  the  Liturgical  Chant  in  the  Holy  City  and  the  services  with 
which  he  was  familiar  at  home.  He  determined,  as  he  said,  to  purify  the 
clouded  stream  of  Church  song  by  a  return  to  the  fountain  spring.  He 
left  two  priests  in  Rome  to  be  instructed,  and  later  the  Pope  ^ent  him 
two  others,  Peter  and  Romanus,  with  authentic  copies  of  the  Antiphon- 
arium  of  St.  Peter's.  Romanus  was  taken  ill  and  cared  for  by  the 
monks  of  St.  Gall,  and  later  received  imperial  permission  to  remain  in 
this  monastery  and  teach  the  true  principles  of  the  Chant  in  accordance 
with  his  copy  of  the  Antiphonarium.  Peter  proceeded  to  Metz,  and  the 
two  schools  thus  established  by  these  monks  soon  developed  a  strong 
rivalry  and  became  centers  of  great  influence  for  the  propagation  of  the 
Chant. 

Schubiger,  in  his  ''Saengerschule  St.  Gallens,"  has  given  much  in- 
teresting information  concerning  the  supposed  copy  of  the  Antiphonarium 
brought  by  Romanus  to  St.  Gall,  as  well  as  other  early  MSS.  of  Plain 
Song  found  in  the  library  of  the  monastery.  The  inflections  of  the  mel- 
odies are  roughly  indicated  by  arbitrary  signs  placed  over  the  text  and 
called  neumes,  some  twenty-eight  different  forms  of  which  are  repre- 
sented in  fac-simile.  In  these  early  MSS.  there  is  no  staff,  not  even 
the  trace  of  the  single  line,  about  which  the  neumes  were  later  grouped 
and  which  still  later  developed  into  the  two-line,  and  finally  the  four- 
line  staff.  As  will  be  readily  understood,  this  species  of  notation  was 
most  indefinite  and  unsatisfactory.  It  could  at  best  assist  the  memory 
by  vague  suggestion  to  recall  melodies  which  had  been  previously  learned 
by  oral  tradition.  This  fact,  together  with  the  isolation  of  many  mon- 
asteries, the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  communication  and  comparison, 
as  well  as  the  ever  growing  body  of  Song,  soon  multiplied  diversity  of 
usage,  which  became  confirmed  by  centuries  of  unbroken  practice  and 
later  accurate  notation  into  the  so-called  "local  uses''  of  the  cathedrals 
and  monasteries  of  Germany,  Gaul  and  Britain.  The  first  serious  ef- 
fort on  the  part  of  the  Roman  see  to  remove  provincial  variants  was 
made  at  Trent.     Palestrina  was  entrusted  with  the  reform  of  the  melodies 


65 

and  with  the  assistance  of  Guidetti  accomplished  very  much.  Local 
uses  were.,  however,  very  generally  retained.  For  many  reasons  it  was 
often  impolitic  for  the  Pope  to  require  certain  orders,  monasteries  or 
dioceses  to  relinquish  usages  to  which  they  were  attached  by  centuries 
of  tradition  and  to  conform  to  the  authentic  text.  The  effort  for  reform 
and  uniformity  begun  at  Trent  has  indeed  but  been  completed  within 
the  last  twenty  years,  when  the  last  of  the  "typical  editions"  of  the 
Office  Books  of  the  Roman  Church  issued  from  the  press.* 

The  precise  form  of  the  melodies  indicated  in  the  "authentic'" 
editions  is  now.  at  least  nominally,  obligatory  upon  all  churches  of  the 
Roman  jurisdiction.  But  in  fact  many  communities,  by  virtue  of  special 
dispensations  granted  for  reasons  best  known  to  the  Holy  Father,  are 
still   permitted  to  adhere   to   traditional   usages. 

Some  notice  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Reformers  dealt  with  this 
great  body  of  Liturgical  Song  may  be  of  particular  interest  to  us.  The 
Radicals  generally  discarded  both  the  historic  Service  and  its  Chant; 
a  very  few  of  the  Reformed  Orders  preserved  the  most  virile  and  seem- 
ingly ineradicable  elements.  The  Lutherans  almost  invariably  retained 
all  the  doctrinally  pure  elements  in  the  historic  Liturgy,  together  with 
their  usual  melodies,  in  some  instances  even  continuing  the  choral 
reading  of  the  Pericopes.  Luther  himself  labored  to  preserve  the  old 
melodies  and  to  adapt  them  to  the  remodelled  Services.  His  Formula 
Missae  retained  both  the  traditional  text,  purified,  of  course,  and  its 
music.  For  his  Deutsche  Messe  of  1526,  with  the  assistance  of  his  friend, 
John  Walther,  the  musician,  whom  he  invited  to  Wittenberg  for  that 
especial  purpose,  he  arranged  the  old  melodies  to  the  German  text. 
To  this  work  Luther  brought  his  own  marvelous  qualifications — thor- 
ough acquaintance  with  the  contents  and  traditions  of  the  Song,  deep 
comprehension  of  the  genius  of  the  languages,  and  keen  perception  of 
the  proper  artistic  values  required  in  the  union  of  text  and  melody.  It 
is  not  to  be  expected  that  all  who  were  responsible  for  the  132  inde- 
pendent KOO  that  appeared  within  the  thirty-two  years  following 
Luther's  first  Service  could  bring  the  same  skill  to  their  task.     Besides, 


*  What  an  extensive  body  of  song  the  Gregorian  liturgical  music  of  the  Roman  Church 
is  appears  from  a  notice  of  these  authentic  books  and  their  contents,  which  we  take  from 
Haberl.— (Magister  Choralis.) 

1.  Missale,  containing  all  the  Les-ons,  Gospels,  Prayers,  etc.,  the  Canon  of  the  Mass, 
various  Intonations  of  the  Celebrant,  the  chants  of  the  Preface,  Pater  Noster,  etc. 

2.  Graduale,  containing  the  portions  of  the  Liturgy  sung  by  the  choir— the  Introits, 
Graduals,  Tracts,  Alleluias,  Sequences,  Offertories  and  Communions  of  the  entire  ecclesias- 
tical year,  and  those  proper  to  the  several  Festivals. 

3.  Pontificate,  containing  the  several  functions  proper  to  a  Bishop— confirmation, 
minor  orders,  consecration  of  altars  and  churches,  etc. 

4.  Rituale  for  the  Administration  of  the  Sacraments,  containing  also  the  chants  for 
processions,  the  approved  litanies,  burial  service,  etc. 

5.  Ceremoniale  Episcoporum. 

6.  Antiphonarium,  containing  all  the  chants  for  the  Services  of  the  Hours,  the 
Antiphons,  Invitatories,  Responsories,  Psalm  Tones,  etc.,  as  the  Graduale  contains  the 
chants  for  the  Mass. 

7.  Directorium  Chori,  which  is  the  standard  book  for  all  intonations  of  the  celebrant 
and  chanters,  furnishing  the  ground  plan  for  the  Antiphonarium,  and  indicating  all  the 
chants  by  their  opening  phrase  and  mode. 


66 

no  form  or  type  of  Service  was  binding.  Local  conditions  as  well  as 
personal  preferences  of  the  clergy  were  freely  consulted,  and  the  fact 
that  in  the  midst  of  such  independence  and  freedom  both  the  chief 
parts  of  the  Liturgy  and  their  traditional  melodies  were  retained,  is  con- 
vincing testimony  not  only  to  the  conservative  character  of  the  Lutheran 
Reformation  in  general,  but  to  the  high  esteem  and  love  which  our 
Reformers  everywhere  entertained  for  the  historic  Liturgical  Music  of 
the  Church.  Much  of  it  perished  with  the  impure  text  which  it  clothed, 
but  the  melodies  to  Introits,  Kyrie.  Gloria.  Collects,  Hallelujah,  Creeds, 
Prefaces,  Sanctus,  Verba,  Lord's  Prayer.  Pax  and  Agnus.  Litany  and 
Benediction,  as  well  as  Versicles,  Antiphons,  Psalms  and  Canticles,  Re- 
sponsories  and  Benedicamus  were  universally  retained.  Personal  ex- 
amination has  assured  us  that  more  than  fifty  of  these  early  KOO  which 
we  have  been  able  to  consult  have  given  the  Gregorian  melodies  in  their 
characteristic  notation  with  the  text  of  the  Liturgy.  The  first  volume  of 
Schoeberlein's  monumental  "Schatz  des  liturgischen  Chor — und  Gemein- 
degesangs"  occupies  more  than  750  pages  with  collated  forms  of  these 
old  melodies  as  found  in  the  Lutheran  KOO  of  Germany  of  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries.  Still  other  Orders  direct  certain  parts  of  the 
Liturgy  to  be  sung,  but  do  not  supply  the  notes,  thus  assuming  a  thor- 
ough familiarity  with  the  traditional  melodies.* 

Besides  these  numerous  local  KOO  many  works  of  a  more  general 
character,  designed  to  promote  the  use  of  the  Gregorian  Chant  in  our 
Services,  appeared  during  the  one  hundred  years  succeeding  Luther's 
first  German  Service  of  1526.  Chief  among  these  we  may  mention 
the  "Psalmodia.  hoc  est  Cantica  Sacra"  of  Lucas  Lossius.  a  Cantionale 
prepared  for  churches  and  schools  and  containing  a  most  complete 
selection  from  the  Misssale,  Graduale  and  Antiphonarium  of  the  Pre- 
Reformation  Church.  Lossius  had  been  a  pupil  of  Luther  and  Me- 
lanchthon.  1530-32.  and  for  fifty  years  was  professor  at  the  college  at 
Lueneburg.  Melanchthon  wrote  a  preface  to  his  work,  which  first  ap- 
peared in  1553.  and  ran  through  many  later  editions.  It  is  a  Lutheran 
liturgico-musical  classic  of  the  very  highest  rank,  and  even  Romanists 
who  would  seek  the  original  form  of  melodies  used  in  Germany  at  that 
period  must  study  it.  as  it  antedates  by  more  than  thirty  years  the  first 
authoritative  collection  of  Rome  prepared  by  Guidetti.  The  edition  of 
1595  is  an  octavo  volume  of  more  than  800  pages  and  is  divided  into 
four  books  and  contains  Gregorian  melodies  to  56  Introits.  14  Hallelujahs. 
31  Sequences,  206  Antiphons  and  47  Responsories.  as  well  as  different 
forms    of    the    Kyrie,    Gloria.    Xicene    Creed.    Litany,    Proper    Prefaces, 


*The  history  of  the  Intr  'it  will  probably  illus-rate  the  manner  in  which  the  service*  of 
that  period  employed  the  various  elements  of  the  historic  Service.  Where  there  were 
schools  and  boy  choirs  the  entire  cycle  of  Introits  for  the  whole  Church  Year  was  preserved 
in  Latin  with  the  usual  Plain  Song  melodies.  Where  the  Latin  text  was  not  retained  only 
the  Introits  for  Festival  days  were  translated  into  German  and  tided.  In  villages  the  his- 
torical Introit  frequently  gave  place  to  the  congregational  hymn,  "Komm.  hc:liger  Geist," 
as  "Allein  Gott  in  der  Hoeh  sei  Ehr"  represented  the  ancient  Gloria  in  Excelsis.  And  here 
we  note  the  interesting  fact  that  the  congregational  hymn  had  no  pla<e  or  character  in  the 
Service  for  a  considerable  time,  apart  from  the  Liturgy  itself,  various  portions  of  which  it 
translated  and  represented. 


67 

Sanctus,  Agnus,  Funeral  Chants,  with  the  Matin  and  Vesper  Psalms, 
Benedictus,  Magnificat.  Nunc  Dimittis  and  Te  Deum,  and  various  festival 
forms    of   the   Venite. 

In  1545  Johan  Spangenberg  published  a  large  folio  volume  of  379 
pages,  "Cantiones  Ecclesiastics, "  containing  the  historic  parts  of  the 
Service  with  their  traditional  melodies  arranged  for  the  Evangelical 
worship.  Both  the  Latin  and  German  text  is  given.  Spangenberg  was 
in  close  touch  with  Luther,  and  his  work  has  been  declared  to  be,  next 
to  Luther's  two  Orders  of  Service,  the  most  weighty  historical  docu- 
ment of  the  Reformation  period  concerning  the  liturgico-musical  con- 
stitution of  the  Chief  Service  for  Sundays  and  Festivals. 

In  1588  Franz  Eler  published  a  volume  of  360  pages,  containing  an 
extensive  collection  of  Gregorian  Song,  prepared  particularly  for  the 
Evangelical  Services  in  Hamburg.  Here  we  find  the  old  melodies  for 
the  various  parts  of  the  Communion  Service,  the  Introits,  Kyrie,  Creed, 
Prefaces,  Sanctus,  etc. ;  the  Litany,  Canticles  and  Intonations  for  the 
Psalms,  253  Antiphons,  71  Responsories,  13  Hallelujahs,  Funeral  Chants, 
different  forms  for  the  Benedicamus,  etc.,  as  well  as  the  German  Psalms 
of  Luther  and  others. 

In  these  notes  we  have  confined  ourselves  to  works  of  which  we 
have  copies  at  hand,  and  which  we  have  been  able  to  examine  with 
care.  They  fairly  represent  probably  forty  or  more  works  of  similar 
character,  and  their  appearance  aftei  metrical  hymnody  and  much  poly- 
phonic music  of  more  modern  character  had  already  found  a  place  in 
the  Service,  and  in  many  Protestant  communities  entirely  supplanted 
the  earlier  forms,  is  convincing  testimony  to  the  earnest  effort  of  our 
fathers  in  this  classic  period  to  preserve  and  promote  the  best  ana 
most  beautiful  forms  of  this  Gregorian  element  in  our  Church  Music. 

But  our  study  of  Gregorian  Music  is  by  no  means  a  mere  archaeo- 
logical inquiry.  It  is,  indeed,  perhaps  quite  a  prevalent  apprehension 
that  the  Plain  Song  melodies  are  simply  the  curious  remains  of  an 
undeveloped,  incoherent  and  rather  barbaric  musical  system,  without 
true  artistic  content  or  value  for  persons  of  modern  sensibility  and 
intelligence.  They  are  supposed  to  represent  a  certain  period  of  musical 
transition,  a  chrysalis  stage,  if  you  please,  from  which  the  freer  and 
nobler  life  of  modern  music  emerged,  leaving  the  old  cocoon^as  a  mat- 
ter of  curious  study  to  a  few  students  of  musical  history.  The  history 
of  Art  scarcely  reveals  a  more  ignorant  misconception  than  this.  The 
Gregorian  Chant  certainly  differs  vastly  from  modern  measured  music, 
with  its  major  and  minor  scales,  its  chromatic  melodies,  sustaining 
harmonies  and  measured  rhythm.  It  must  not  be  judged  by  standards 
of  value  correct  enough  when  applied  to  the  latter.  Gregorian  music  is 
one  thing;  modern  music  is  quite  another.  Each  is  complete  in  itself 
and  has  its  own  sphere.  To  understand  Plain  Song  aright  we  must  know 
its  characteristics,  learn  its  purpose  and  breathe  its  spirit. 

It  is  distinctively  unisonous  in  character.  There  are  no  "parts"  or 
"voices";  the  chant  is  simply  melody  sung  in  unison,  without  the  con- 
ception of  harmony,  upon  which  all  modern  music  is  based.  It  is  not 
written  in  the  modern  major  or  minor  keys,  but  in  some  twelve  scales 


68 

or  "modes."  each  of  which  has  a  distinctive  character  by  reason  of  a 
distinctive  succession  ot  intervals  and  a  characteristic  relation  of  "dom- 
inant" to  "final,"  which  again  are  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  "dom 
inant"  and  "tonic"  of  modern  keys.  It  is  rhythmically  free,  and  bears 
no  suggestion  of  bars  and  measured  rhythm,  which  Carl  Merz  has 
said  is  ever  "the  most  striking  trait  of  secularism  in  music."  It  knows 
no  existence  in  and  of  itself  and  apart  from  the  text  of  the  Liturgy, 
and  herein  displays  its  chief  distinction  while  it  reveals  its  supreme 
purpose.  Over  against  the  cardinal  principle  of  the  Renaissance,  "Art 
for  Art's  sake,"  it  stands  for  the  distinctively  Christian  principle  of 
"Art  for  Worship's  sake."  It  has  but  one  absorbing  desire — to  be  per- 
mitted to  clothe  the  sacred  text  in  reverent  beauty.  Untrammeled  by 
excessive  external  requirements  of  "form,"  it  spends  itself  in  the  service 
of  the  holy  words,  entering  into  deepest  sympathy  with  their  every 
shade  of  meaning  and  bearing  praise  and  petition  upon  the  waves  of 
its  noble  melody  before  the  very  throne  of  God.  It  is  a  veritable  "song- 
speech."  ever  subordinate,  first  liturgical,  then  musical,  truly  a  devout 
worshiper  and  ministering  servant  in  the  Temple  of  Worship. 

Such,  then,  is  the  character  of  this  Liturgical  Music  of  the  Church, 
indeed  a  true  music  of  the  Church,  native  to  it,  naturally  and  spontan- 
eously emerging  from  its  own  life,  and  not,  as  so  much  modern  art,  un- 
sympathetic and  unknowing,  an  application  from  without;  pre-eminently 
devotional,  elevating,  reverently  subordinate  to  the  text  and  yet  clothing 
it  in  forms  of  unsurpassed  melodic  beauty;  yielding  with  the  freedom 
of  natural  declamation  to  the  ryhthm  of  the  words — the  very  "breath 
of  the  Liturgy."  It  comes  down  to  us  through  the  centuries  as  a 
precious  inheritance  from  an  age  when  rude  and  ignorant  barbarism 
characterized  nearly  everything  outside  of  the  innermost  circles  of  the 
Church  itself — a  parallel  to  those  marvelously  beautiful  blooms  of  a 
decaying  age,  the  Collects  of  the  Western  Church.  It  formed  the 
treasure  house,  the  "Sacred  Writings  of  the  Church  Music  of  the  Middle 
Ages,"  as  Proske  beautifully  said,  "from  which  the  pericopes  for  the 
true  churchly  style  must  be  taken";  it  was  the  foundation  upon  which 
the  superstructure  of  a  later  and  different  musical  system  with  a  dif- 
ferent spirit  and  purpose  was  to  be  built;  but  it  stands  before  us  to-day, 
not  as  a  crude,  undeveloped  or  transitional  nondescript,  but  as  a  com 
pleted,  fully  developed  art-form;  hoary  with  ages  and  hallowed  with  cen- 
turies of  holy  service,  but  with  the  vigor  and  purity  of  a  never-fading 
youth. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  refer  to  the  melancholy  period  that  beheld 
the  Liturgy  mutilated  and  dishonored  and  the  Liturgical  Music  silent 
and  forgotten  in  our  churches.  The  insane  passion  for  rhymed  versi- 
fications and  strongly  rhythmical  melodies,  together  with  the  rapid  de- 
velopment of  Music  as  an  art  outside  of  the  walls  of  the  Church  and 
its  gradual  return  with  newly  acquired  florid  and  unchurchly  content 
and  form  into  the  Service  of  the  Church  itself,  early  paved  the  way  for 
the  neglect  of  much  of  the  old  Gregorian  melody.  Then  came  Pietism— 
religiously,  intellectually  and  artistically  too  shallow  and  superficial  to 
comprehend  the   simple   grandeur  and  beauty   of   the   Gregorian   system. 


69 

which  was  compelled  to  give  place  to  emotional  and  subjective  hymns 
set  to  trifling  and  ephemeral  tunes.  And  as  if  this  were  not  sufficient, 
cold,  calculating  Rationalism,  that  hesitated  not  to  place  its  sacrilegious 
hand  upon  the  very  Prayer  of  our  Lord  and  His  Words  of  Institution  in 
the  Holy  Supper,*  completely  excluded  it  from  the  temple  of  God.  be- 
cause the  very  words  it  bore  were  a  living  testimony  to  the  pure  faith  of 
the  historic  Church  and  a  protest  against  the  heresy  of  that  day.  And 
so  it  transpired  that  in  places  the  ancient  Liturgical  Song  was  so  com- 
pletely forsaken  that  we  find  in  1852  the  editors  of  a  reprint  of  the  Mecklen- 
burg KO  of  1552  apologizing  for  the  omission  of  the  ancient  melodies, 
since  "the  knowledge  of  the  old  notation  has  been  lost." 

Gratefully  we  note  a  change,  an  earnest  awakening  of  a  new  gener- 
ation that  is  not  ashamed  to  learn  from  a  former  age.  And  surely  it 
is  not  necessary  to  affirm  that  the  true  Art  of  the  future,  sacred  or  secu- 
lar, will  be  that  which  will  earnestly  and  intelligently  study  the  best 
models  of  the  Art  of  the  past.  Kliefoth,  Loehe,  Schoeberlein,  Lyra,  Arm 
knecht.  Hommel,  Herold  and  many  others  in  Germany  have  devoted 
years  of  faithful  study  to  this  end,  and  as  a  result  of  their  labors  Mecklen- 
burg. Bayern,  Saxony  and  other  States  have  already  restored  the  beau- 
tiful Liturgy  of  the  Early  Church  and  its  noble  melodies  to  their  people. 
We.  too.  have  discovered  that  we  have  a  part  in  a  precious  heritage  from 
our  spiritual  fathers,  and  are  now  enabled  to  worship  in  the  venerable 
and  uplifting  forms  which  have  for  ages  so  acceptably  enshrined  the 
living  faith  of  the  Communion  of  Saints.  We  are  just  beginning  to 
learn  that  as  we  possess  an  historical  Liturgy  so  we  also  have  a  most 
beautiful  and  comprehensive  body  of  Liturgical  Song,  which  in  richness 
and  extent  is  equalled  by  no  other  Church  of  Protestantism,  t 

But  sadly  must  we  acknowledge  that  these  treasures  are  but  little 
known  and  less  used  among  us.  Our  beautiful  Service,  it  is  true,  is  in 
general  use,  but  the  modern  effusions  of  contemporary  organists  have 
usurped  the  rightful  place  of  the  true  Liturgical  Music  of  the  Church. 
That  which  is  of  to-day  and  will  perish  to-morrow  is  honored,  while  the 
masterpiece  of  ages,  whose  enduring  worth  has  outlived  the  changes  of 
a  dozen  centuries,  lies  forgotten.  ''A  profound  teacher  of  thousands,  a 
bearer  and  preserver  of  great  ideas  for  the  centuries,"  her  tones  are  dumb, 
as  if  there  were  no  mission  for  her  to  fulfill  in  this  present  age.  Plain 
Song  is  as  well  qualified  to  perform  its  historic  functions  as  the  bearer  of 
the  liturgical  text  in  the  present  as  at  any  period  in  the  past.  The  lit- 
urgical music  of  our  Church  in  Germany  and  Scandinavia  is  unques- 
tionably Gregorian.  We  in  our  own  land  present  the  anomaly  of  a 
people  with  a  beautiful  historical  Service  divorced  from  its  natural  com- 
panion and  unequally  yoked  together  with  an  effeminate  liturgical  music 
that  is  devoid  of  dignity  and  virility,  and  utterly  unable  tc  rise  to  the 
demands  of  truly  liturgical  content,   form   or  feeling.     The    Liturgy  and 

*  Schleswig-Holstein  Agenda,  1824  ;  Horst,  Mysteriosophie,  1817,  etc. 

fThe  single  native  work  of  the  Reformation  period  containing  the  historic  ritual  music 
that  the  Anglican  Church  can  present,  "The  Booke  of  Common  Praier  Noted,"  of  John 
Merbecke,  when  compared  with  one  of  our  many  continental  Cantionales  appears  pitiful 
in  its  poverty.  It  contains  only  the  very  simplest  ferial  forms  of  a  very  limited  number  of 
melodies. 


70 

its  Music  together  form  a  unit.  To  divide  them  is  often  to  render  both 
unintelligible.  We  need  to  study  the  Liturgy  in  the  light  of  its  Music 
and  our  Music  in  the  light  of  the  Liturgy.  Such  earnest  study  as  this 
bespeaks  would  be  at  once  a  dignified  protest  and  an  effective  pro- 
tection against  the  progress  of  that  vulgar  secularitv.  harsh  irreverence 
and  mawkish,  sentimental  subjectivity  that  prevails  to  such  a  shameful 
degree  in  much  that  is  termed  "Divine  Service." 

It  is  not  our  wish  to  prevent  the  offerings  of  modern  musical  art 
in  the  sanctuary.  These  have  their  place.  Nor  would  we  be  understood 
as  advocating  the  restoration  of  the  entire  body  of  Gregorian  Song. 
Much  of  it  is  useless  to  us  to-day.  But  we  believe  that  the  simple,  strong 
melodies  of  the  Gregorian  system  which  grew  up  with  the  text  itself, 
are  far  better  qualified  in  spirit  and  character  to  serve  as  our  Service 
Music  to-day  than  any  modern  substitute  we  have  heard  or  are  likely 
to  hear.  Not  simply  because  it  is  historical  and  traditional,  but  be- 
cause we  regard  it  to  be,  for  certain  ends,  the  best,  do  we  regard  "the 
Gregorian  element"  a  very  important  element  in  our  true  Church  Music 
of  to-day,  and  urge  renewed  study  of  its  principles  and  forms.  We  would 
bid  it  enter  our  churches  again  and  accord  it  the  supreme  dignity  of 
bearing  the  holy  words  of  the  Divine  Liturgy  and  the  sacred  text  of 
the  Psalmody.  To  it  would  we  again  entrust  the  Introit,  Kyrie,  Gloria. 
Hallelujah,  Offertory,  Litany,  Preface,  Sanctus,  Agnus  and  Pax  and 
Postcommunion,  as  well  as  the  Versicles,  Antiphons,  Psalms  and  Can- 
ticles of  the  Minor  Services,  assured  that  in  its  noble  melodies  the 
words  would  find  their  most  adequate  and  elevating  expression.  We 
would  seek  to  understand  more  of  the  spirit  and  genius  of  this,  the  most 
intimate  of  all  the  arts  which  have  grown  up  about  the  Liturgy;  to 
use  its  melodial  forms  in  our  worship,  teach  them  to  the  children  in 
our  schools  and  endeavor  to  transmit  the  Liturgy  and  Music  of  the 
historic  Church  as  a  priceless  heritage  to  the  generations  of  the  Church 
yet  unborn — a  living  witness  among  the  manifold  changes  of  lime  to 
the  unb'oken  Communion  of  Saints. 


PSALMODY 


BY  THE    REV.   ELMER  F.  KRAUSS. 


The  manifold  blessings  of  God  demand  recognition  from  the  truly 
grateful  heart.  This  expression  naturally  finds  its  vent  in  hymns  of 
praise  and  thanksgiving.  Wherever  man  has  been  found,  there  have 
been  heard  ascending  to  the  skies  the  strains  of  praise  and  adoration. 
As  in  some  religious  orders  the  attempt  is  made  to  have  the  worship 
of  God  continue  uninterruptedly,  day  and  night,  by  relays  of  worshipers, 
so,  we  may  say,  the  praise  of  the  Lord  has  not  ceased  on  earth,  in  the 
continuous  worship  and  thanksgiving  of  some  of  His  people,  from  the 
time  when,  amid  the  thunders  and  lightnings  of  Sinai,  the  will  of  God 
was  declared,  until  these  latter  days  when  the  sun  in  his  rising,  as  his 
rays  kiss  in  turn  the  many  countries  of  the  earth,  is  continually  greeted 
with  the  unceasing  praise  of  our  God.  Next  to  the  offering  of  sacri- 
fice, the  singing  of  psalms  and  hymns  of  praise  to  the  Deity  has  been 
the  most  marked  of  the  practices  of  religion  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 
Since,  then,  some  form  of  psalmody  has  been  so  intimately  connected 
with  the  exercise  of  all  religions,  it  is  certainly  fitting  and  proper  that 
we  should  strive  after  a  fuller  understanding  of  this  important  subject, 
and  should  devote  a  part  of  the  time  of  this  Convocation  to  its  consider- 
ation. 

Judging  from  the  finished  form  and  the  exalted  style  of  the  psalm 
of  thanksgiving  sung  by  the  Israelites  after  the  destruction  of  Pharaoh's 
host  in  the  Red  Sea,  we  are  led  to  believe  that  psalmody  was  practiced 
by  God's  chosen  people  even  before  the  Exodus.  It  was  not  wholly 
interrupted  during  the  dark  days  of  the  Judges,  as  we  learn  from  the 
exalted  and  martial  strains  of  Deborah  and  Barak.  We  are  justified  in 
believing  that  it  was  assiduously  practiced  by  the  schools  of  the  prophets 
instituted  by  Samuel.  It  was  introduced  by  David,  "the  sweet  singer  of 
Israel,"  as  an  integral  part  of  the  service  of  the  temple.  The  few  refer- 
ences we  have  in  the  Old  Testament  to  the  temple  service  are  sufficient 
to  assure  us  that  no  part  of  the  ancient  cultus  was  superior  in  its  awful 
solemnity  and  transporting  beauty  to  its  Psalmody.  The  army  of  sing- 
ers, clothed  in  dazzling  white,  and  the  volume  of  sweet  sound  resounding 
like  one  voice  from  choir  to  choir,  supplemented  and  rounded  out  by 
the  solemn  tone  of  the  temple  "instruments  and  enhanced  by  the  sanctity 
of  the  surroundings  and  the  look  of  reverent  awe  upon  each  countenance, 
must  in  their  entirety  have  made  an  impression  upon  the  beholder  which 
could  never  be  effaced;  but  which  would  spring  spontaneously  to  the 
front  at  the  call  of  memory  under  the  contemplation  of  the  transcendent 

(71) 


72 

glory  and  the  ravishing  beauty  of  the  heavenly  courts  in  which  Jehovah 
has  established  His  eternal  throne. 

The  beauty  and  the  sweetness  of  the  ancient  Psalmody  of  Israel 
were  known  even  to  the  surrounding  nations.  In  the  dark  days  of  the 
Babylonian  captivity  the  pathetic  plaint  found  expression  with  a  sadness 
which  to-day  yet  touches  the  heart,  ''They  that  carried  us  away  captive 
demanded  of  us  a  song;  and  they  that  wasted  us  required  of  us  mirth, 
saying,  Sing  us  one  of  the  songs  of  Zion."  Although  they  hanged  their 
harps  upon  the  willow-trees  and  could  not  sing  the  Lord's  song  in  a 
strange  land,  yet  the  songs  of  the  temple  were  not  forgotten.  Psalmody 
was  employed  with  renewed  zeal  on  their  return.  Its  practice  was  con- 
tinued in  spite  of  war  and  persecution;  and,  through  the  influence  of  the 
synagogue,  the  songs  of  Zion  were  heard  to  re-echo  in  all  civilized 
lands  at  the  time  of  the  coming  of  the  Saviour  in  the  flesh.  It  is  grati- 
fying to  know  that  our  adorable  Lord,  during  the  days  of  His  humiliation 
on  earth,  gave  a  new  meaning  and  a  more  exalted  beauty  to  the  ancient 
practice  of  Psalmody  by  taking  part  in  this  exercise  as  a  worshiper 
at  the  services  of  the  temple  and  the  synagogues.  We  are  justified  in 
believing  that  the  hymn  sung  by  the  Lord  and  His  disciples  before  He 
passed  over  the  brook  Cedron  to  His  awful  agony  in  the  Garden  of 
Gethsemane,  was  one  of  the  Psalms  of  the  Old  Testament. 

From  notices  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  we  learn  that  the  early 
Christians  attended  the  services  of  the  temple  and  of  the  synagogues, 
and  took  part  in  their  worship.  It  is  reasonable  to  infer,  then,  that  when 
they  met  in  a  distinctively  Christian  service,  they  employed  the  Psalms 
of  the  Old  Testament  in  the  way  they  were  accustomed  to  use  them  in 
the  services  of  the  Jewish  Church.  We  are  led  to  this  conclusion  not 
only  by  a  number  of  references  in  the  New  Testament,  but  also  by  the 
noted  letter  of  Pliny  to  the  Emperor  Trajan,  at  the  beginning  of  the  sec- 
ond century.  From  the  writings  of  the  early  Christian  Church  we  are 
led  to  believe  that  Psalmody  was  practiced  in  this  early  age  with  great 
zeal  and  affection.  We  are  not  painting  an  imaginary  picture  when  we 
assert  that  the  meetings  of  the  early  Christians,  whether  in  private 
houses,  or,  in  the  days  of  persecution,  in  the  gloomy  catacombs  of  the 
capital  city,  were  enlivened  by  the  exalted  strains  of  the  inspired  Psalms 
of  the  Old  Testament.  Full,  as  these  are,  of  the  Redeemer,  they  adapt 
themselves  especially  to  the  worship  of  the  New  Testament  Church. 

That  Psalmody  was  cultivated  in  the  early  Christian  centuries  be- 
comes evident  from  the  causes  which  led  to  the  reform  in  Church  music 
in  the  days  of  Ambrose,  Bishop  of  Milan.  With  Gregory  the  Great  we 
arrive  at  the  beginning  of  another  epoch  in  the  history  of  Church  music. 
In  his  time  the  four  plagal  modes  were  added  to  the  four  authentic  modes 
in  use  from  the  days  of  St.  Ambrose.  The  Psalms  were  sung  to  these 
eight  tones,  to  which  the  Tonus  Peregrinus  was  afterwards  added.  As 
all  the  roads  of  the  ancient  world  radiated  from  Rome,  so  the  Gregorian 
Chant,  or  Plain  Song,  originating  in  the  "Eternal  City,"  was  in  the 
course  of  time  gradually  carried  over  into  the  other  Occidental  Churches, 
under  the  guidance  and  influence  of  teachers  sent  out  from  Rome.  The 
famous    singing   school    at    St.    Gall   became    especially   noted,    and   was 


73 

the  center  for  the  spread  of  this  style  of  Psalmody  throughout  Central 
Europe.  Charlemagne  was  an  especial  patron  of  this  style,  and  used 
his  influence  to  have  it  introduced  into  the  churches  of  his  realm. 

The  innate  strength,  solemn  beauty  and  dignified  churchliness  of 
the  Gregorian  Psalmody  is  vindicated  by  the  historical  fact  that  its 
place  in  the  service  of  the  Church  has  not  been  usurped  by  any  other 
style  of  music  from  the  days  of  Gregory  down  to  our  own  time.  It  is 
the  authoritative  music  of  the  ritual  and  of  the  Psalmody  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  and  is  honored  and  loved  by  students  of  Church  music 
outside  of  that  Communion.  The  liturgical  tendency  which  has  become 
manifest  in  nearly  all  the  branches  of  the  Protestant  Church  in  the  course 
of  the  latter  half  of  this  century  has  also  been  marked  by  an  increased 
interest  in  Gregorian  Plain  Song  and  in  the  adaptation  of  the  same  to 
the  Psalmody  of  the   Church. 

In  accordance  with  the  strictly  conservative  character  of  the  Lu- 
theran Reformation,  the  Psalmody  of  the  ancient  Church  was  trans- 
ferred with  its  distinctive  tones  to  the  worship  of  the  Evangelical  Church. 
The  Psalms  with  their  Antiphons  were  usually  sung  in  Latin;  but,  as 
they  were  translated  into  German,  they  were  also  sung  in  that  language. 
It  is  gratifying  to  a  lover  of  Gregorian  Psalmody  to  notice  how  active 
many  of  our  Church  musicians  were  in  the  sixteenth  century  in  adapt- 
ing the  music  of  the  ancient  Church  to  the  services  of  the  Evangelical 
Church.  Before  the  close  of  this  century  several  colossal  works  on  the 
music  of  the  Church  appeared.  Of  these  the  most  important  are  those 
of  Lucas  Lossius.  Spangenberg,  Eler,  Keuchenthal  and  Ludecus.  The 
work  of  Lossius  appeared  thirty  years  before  the  first  authorized  col- 
lection of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  by  Guidetti,  so  that,  on  the 
authority  of  Schoeberlein,  we  are  assured  the  original  tones  of  the 
Psalms  as  used  in  that  period  are  not  to  be  sought  in  the  work  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  author,  Guidetti,  but  in  that  of  the  Lutheran,  Lossius. 
This  plainly  establishes  the  right  of  the  Lutheran  Church  to  the  use  of 
Plain  Song  in  her  Psalmody. 

We  see,  then,  that  the  pure  practice  of  our  Church  in  the  matter  of 
Psalmody  was  in  accordance  with  that  of  the  ancient  Church,  not  only 
in  using  the  Psalms  as  they  stand  in  the  Word  of  Gou,  but  also  in  the 
tones  to  which  they  are  sung.  It  is  true  many  ol  tne  Psalms  were  freely 
rendered  into  the  vernacular  and  used  in  the  service  of  the  Church,  but 
these  were  always  placed  on  the  same  basis  as  other  hymns  used  in  the 
worship.  Although  efforts  were  made  to  use  the  Psalter  in  metre,  as  is 
proved  by  the  work  of  Lobwasser,  yet  this  degenerate  style  of  Psalmody 
never  became  popular  among  us.  This  is  a  distinctly  Reformed  usage, 
and  prevails  in  the  churches  of  that  communion  to  the  present  day.  The 
ancient  form  of  Psalmody,  set  to  the  Gregorian  tones,  as  it  obtains  in 
the  historical  practice  of  our  Church,  is  regarded  by  the  great  body  of 
the  Reformed  as  a  mark  of  Romanism,  and  is  shunned  accordingly. 
The  only  exception  to  this  prejudice  is  found  in  the  Anglican  Church, 
which  uses  the  Psalms  as  found  in  the  Word,  but  sings  them  to  a 
modern  form  of  chant  which  bears  no  comparison  to  the  historical,  dig- 
nified and  churchly  Plain  Song.     The  Anglican  Chant,  derived  from  the 


74 

ancient  Plain  Song,  is  _  got  salted  and   g 

mot' 

This  br:  :etch  plainly  shows  us   the  importance  <  : 

practice    under    coi  ?n.     Our    glorious    Church    ma:  and 

proudly  insist  that  her  historical  continuity  with  the  past  has  never  been 
violently  broken.     The   Reformation  was  not  a   r.  not 

a  destructive  tire,  through  which  the  Church  passed  and  in  whi; 
thing  was  consumed,  the  good  with  the  bad.  so  that  out  of  the  smoulder- 
ed a  new   Church  might.   Phoenix-like,   arise.     It 
simply  a  purifying  and  refining  fire,  by  means  of  which  the  accumulated 
dross  and  rubbish  of  human  sur  ;.nd  perversity  were  bun 

and   the    Church   placed   upon   the   foundation   of   Christ    and   the    Holy 
Apostles,  without  g  anything  which,  in  spite  of  th 

of  man.  the  Holy  Spirit  ha  aching  the  Church  dm     - 

the   course   of  the   pre:         g  cento  ^:al   Church.    : 

proud   of  her  unbroken    c<  the   Apostles,   we 

need  to  inter  Ives  in  Psalmody,  and  the  service  of 

the  Church  as  to  profit  by  :  the  past.     In  our  pra: 

we  are  to  apply  i  good,   not  bee:.  ~   old.   but  bee. 

good:  without  sing  to  be  benefited  by 

the   t  tigress  in  the  dc  Thurch  music 

in  more  recent  times.  There  is  a  wholesome  developmen: 
under  our  very  eyes.  To  be  concerned  only  with  the  : 
Church  lif  ne  and  cnltns  fiftl 

and  not  of  the  nineteenth,   would  jus  [the   oppro- 

m  and  hide-bound 

Xot  only  our  historical  connec  ;    Church,  but  con- 

siderations o:  a  more"  practical  and  r,  as  well,  de:~ 

the  ;  of  a  corr  Nothing 

enhances  the  beauty  of  a  service  more  than  a  proper  use  of  the  Psal 
Are  we  n  6ed  in  alleging  as  one  oi  :  -  of  the  d 

the  influence  of  the  Church  and  the  decri  ising  :pon  her 

s  in  many  quarters  the  character  of  theatrica".  sss  and  brazen 

meretric'  timent  and  melody  of  much  of  that  which  f 

nowadays  for  sacred  music?     T  solemn  beauty,  a  churchly  dig- 

nity   and    an    exa.:  ".    a    pure 

Psalmody   is   an   integral    part.  .red   in   any    other 

way.     In  the  practice  of  the   Old  T  the  principle  was 

urged  of  worshiping  the  Lord  in  the  of  holiness.     The  structure 

of  the   temple   and   the   arrangement   of  the    -  that   this 

beauty  of  ho:  .y  the  moral  and  spiritual  beauty  aspired 

after  by  :   but.  of  even-thing  else,   as  hich 

red  into  :  Jehovah.     We  in  these  days  ought  not  to  be 

behind  :  :>f  the  old  covenant  in  our  endeavors  to  beautify  and 

enrich  our  service  of  God  in  every  way  possible.     A  proper  observance 
of  a  pure  Psa  :.l  factor  in  securing  this  desirable  qua 

Again,  the  use  of  a  correct  Psalmody  is  demanded  by  considerations 
of   a   still   more   practical   character.     One   of   the    crying   •  oi   the 

Christianity  of  to-day  is  the  ignorai.ee  of  many  of  our  Church  members 


75 

in  Scriptural  truth  and  the  striking  want  of  familiarity  of  most  of  them 
with  the  text  oi  the  Word  of  God.  We  are  told  that  among  the  Orthodox 
Jews  it  is  not  at  all  extraordinary  to  find  individuals  who  know  the  whole 
Psalter  by  heart.  It  used  to  be  the  commendable  practice  in  the  Sunday 
schools  of  a  generation  ago  to  encourage  the  memorizing  of  whole 
passages  from  Scripture.  This  practice  has  largely  fallen  into  disuse. 
Our  children  are  kept  too  busy  wrestling  with  the  ever-growing  curri- 
culum of  our  public  schools  to  find  time  to  memorize  Scripture.  Yet 
how  essential  for  a  person's  spiritual  welfare  is  the  possession  of  Scrip- 
tural truth!  Where  a  correc*-  Psalmody  is  practiced  in  the  services  of 
the  Church,  the  worshipers  learn  the  Psalms  and  Canticles  of  the  Word 
of  God  by  heart,  without  the  exercise  of  conscious  effort.  This  is  an 
advantage  seldom  dwelled  upon,  but  which  in  itself  ought  to  urge  us  to 
return  to  the  ancient  and  pure  practice  of  the  Church  in  the  assiduous 
cultivation  of  a  proper  Psalmody. 

A  discussion  like  the  one  which  at  present  engages  our  attention 
would  not  be  complete  without  a  consideration  of  the  practical  question 
of  the  place  and  the  manner  of  the  employment  of  the  Psalms  in  the  dif- 
ferent services  of  the  Church. 

In  the  Chief  Service  the  use  of  Psalmody  is  indicated  at  the  follow- 
ing places:  At  the  Introit,  the  Gloria  in  Excelsis.  between  the  Epistle 
and  the  Gospel,  at  the  Offertory  and  the  Nunc  Dimittis.  According  to 
the  general  practice  at  the  present  time,  comparatively  little  use  is  made 
of  the  possibilities  for  improving  and  beautifying  our  Chief  Service  by 
the  application  of  the  principles  of  a  pure  Psalmody  at  these  places. 
A  great  enrichment  thereof  may  be  secured  in  this  direction  without  de- 
parting in  the  least  from  the  letter  or  the  spirit  of  the  rubrics. 

Ample  as  are  the  opportunities  for  the  practice  of  Psalmody  in  our 
Chief  Service,  it  is  in  the  Minor  Services,  however,  that  the  largest 
scope  is  afforded  for  this  eminently  useful  and  edifying  practice.  Where 
these  services  are  held  daily  the  whole  Psalter  may  be  gone  over  several 
times  in  the  course  of  the  year.  Each  Psalm  should  close  with  the 
Gloria  Patri.  The  Psalmody  should  be  opened  and  closed  with  an  Anti- 
phon.  which  in  Scriptural  language  usually  indicates  the  period  of  the 
Church  year  and  the  character  of  the  festival.  The  Antiphon  before 
the  Psalmody  should  be  sung  by  a  single  voice,  or  by  several  voices  in 
unison.  At  the  close  of  the  Psalmody  the  historical  practice  has  been 
to  sing  it  in  harmony  or  in  unison. 

As  already  indicated,  according  to  the  pure  practice  of  the  Lutheran 
Church,  the  Psalms  have  always  been  sung  as  they  stand  in  the  Word 
of  God.  Metrical  Psalms  were  never  popular  among  us.  It  is  true 
our  hymnals  contain  many  free  renderings  of  the  Psalms,  but  they  are 
regarded  and  used  simply  as  hymns,  as  already  made  plain:  and  nowhere 
among  our  Lutheran  writers  upon  Psalmody  is  much  attention  given, 
under  this  subject,  to  Psalms  in  metre.  In  fact,  among  us  the  concep- 
tion of  Psalmody  barely  includes  metrical  Psalms.  As  already  indicated 
above,  these  are  very  popular  in  some  parts  of  the  Reformed  Church, 
and  among  them  the  singing  of  these  metrical  compositions  is  dignified 
by    the    term    Psalmody.     However,    but    a    slight    examination    of    their 


76 

Psalms  in  metre  compels  the  conviction  that  nothing  is  gained,  and  a 
great  deal  is  lost,  by  torturing  the  exalted  language  of  the  Psalms  into 
the  stiff  and  artificial  measures  of  modern  rhymed  poetry.  Nothing  re- 
mains in  the  best  of  them  but  the  thought;  and  the  language  and  the 
metre  usually  impress  one  as  cruel,  cast-iron  moulds  into  which  the 
divine  thought  has  been  forced  with  a  ruthlessness  doing  credit  to  a 
modern  Procrustes.  In  employing  the  Psalms  in  this  manner  one  gets 
simply  the  exalted  thought  of  the  inspired  writer  dressed  up,  travestied 
very  frequently,  in  the  language  of  an  uninspired  writer.  We  have  not 
one  whit  less  in  any  Evangelical  hymn.  By  such  a  practice  of  Psalmody, 
so-called,  the  language  of  the  Word  is  not  assimilated,  and  one  of  the 
great  advantages  of  a  correct  Psalmody  is  missed.  Xo  objection  is  here 
offered  to  the  use  of  free  translations  in  verse  of  any  of  the  Psalms;  but 
it  is  urged  that  we.  as  Lutheran  Christians,  in  our  Psalmody  always 
employ  the  Psalms  as  they  stand  in  our  Bibles,  without  doing  violence 
either  to  their  exalted  thought  or  sacred  structure.  In  so  doing  we  shall 
be  in  line  with  the  historical  practice  of  the  Church,  and  shall  be  con- 
tinually absorbing  the  simple  and  dignified  language  of  Holy  Scripture 
in  every  part  of  our  divine  service. 

In  the  practice  of  Psalmody  the  antiphonal  character  of  the  Psalm- 
verse  must  not  be  violated.  A  superficial  examination  even  of  the 
structure  of  a  Psalm-verse  shows  it  to  be  composed  in  its  first  half  of  a 
versicle,  to  which  the  second  half  is  an  answer  or  response.  It  is  ad- 
mitted by  all  scholars  that  the  original  manner  of  rendering  the  Psalms 
was  by  alternate  choirs  singing  responsively.  or  antiphonally.  the  two 
distichs  of  the  Psalm-verse.  This  antiphonal  structure  of  the  Psalm- 
verse  is  also  indicated  in  print  by  particular  marks,  like  the  colon, 
asterisk  or  double-bar  between  its  two  halves.  It  must  be  admitted  that 
many  churches,  in  the  use  of  the  Psalms,  sing  them  verse  about.  This 
may  be  said  to  be  the  later  historical  practice.  However,  it  cannot  be 
maintained  successfully  that  it  is  the  original  practice.  It  does  violence 
to  the  very  meaning  and  structure  of  the  Psalm;  and  we  may  well  be 
proud  that  the  historic  practice  of  our  Church  has  nearly  always  been 
in  line  with  the  natural  structure  and  arrangement  of  the  Psalms.  In  our 
present-day  use  of  the  Psalms  we  should  make  an  effort  to  emphasize 
this  antiphonal  character  of  the  Psalm-verse,  if  not  by  two  choirs,  one 
on  each  side  of  the  church,  then,  at  least,  by  such  a  division  of  the 
choir  and  the  congregation  in  their  rendering  that  this  character  of 
responsiveness  may  be  strongly  emphasized.  Where  this  is  neglected 
or  ignored,  the  intelligent  person  will  instinctively  feel  that  something 
essential  is  missing;  and  the  effectiveness  of  this  part  of  the  service  will 
be  materially  interfered  with. 

Another  characteristic  of  the  Psalms,  which  dare  not  be  overlooked 
in  their  liturgical  use.  is  their  rhythm.  The  Psalms  have  rhythm,  but 
not  metre.  Compared  with  metrical  poetry,  we  might  call  their  measure 
free  rhythm,  or  rhythmic  prose,  which  is  the  grandest  form  of  poetry. 
In  the  language  of  another  ''They  and  their  poetic  form  are  sacred  and 
erable  except  with  a  violence  which  is  sacrilege."  As  already 
eluci  :s    native    form    of   the    Psalm    is    interfered    with    and    de- 


77 

stroyed  in  their  metrical  rendering  in  the  stilted  form  of  modern  poetry. 
The  same  violence  may  be  perpetrated  by  the  music  as  well,  to  which 
the  Psalm  is  sung.  This  is  especially  accomplished  when  the  Anglican 
form  of  the  chant  is  employed.  This  form  of  chant  is  both  rhythmical 
and  metrical,  and  can  never  in  its  present  usual  barred  and  measured 
form  be  properly  used  in  connection  with  the  Psalms,  which  are  un- 
metrical  and  possess  free  rhythm.  The  attempt  to  join  together  what 
is  essentially  at  variance  and  antagonistic,  is  never  satisfactory  anywhere, 
much  less  so  in  worship  of  that  Being  whose  whole  creation  manifests 
His  love  of  order  and  propriety.  In  Psalmody  the  effort  has  always 
been  fruitful  of  artificiality,  rigidity  and  a  cut-and-dried  mathematical 
exactness  painfully  at  variance  with  the  free  and  untrammeled  flow  of 
the  stately  rhythm  of  the  poetical  portions  of  the  Word  of  God.  The 
fixed  rhythm  of  the  Anglican  chant,  with  its  barred  and  measured  music, 
at  once  designates  it  as  unsuited  for  the  use  of  the  Psalms.  The  same 
objection  obtains  also  with  reference  to  the  modern,  degenerate  form  in 
which  we  usually  find  the  Gregorian  tones.  They,  too,  have  been  com- 
pelled to  yield  their  native  beauty,  dignity  and  freedom  to  the  modern 
demands  of  our  artificial  and  artistic  style  of  music.  There  is  no  recourse 
left  us  then,  in  our  search  for  a  chant  adapted  to  the  nature  and  character 
of  the  Psalm-verse,  than  to  return  to  the  earlier  and  original  form  of 
Gregorian  Plain  Song,  as  used  by  our  Church  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
Just  as  our  glorious  Common  Service  is  drawn  from  the  pure  liturgies 
of  the  Reformation  century,  so  an  adequate  and  appropriate  music  for 
the  service  and  its  Psalmody  may  be  secured  from  the  same  period. 
Doctrine,  cultus  and  sacred  music  are  in  this  respect  on  a  common  level. 
The  pioneer  work  in  this  return  to  a  purer  and  more  exalted  style  of 
music  has  already  been  inaugurated  for  us  in  the  labors  of  men  like 
Schoeberlein,  Kliefoth,  Loehe,  Lyra  and  others,  who  have  been  active 
in  the  last  fifty  years  in  that  liturgical  reform  and  return  to  the  purer 
and  better  practices  of  our  Church,  which  has  been  so  productive  of  good 
in  its  influence  in  the  past,  and  which  promises  to  accomplish  still 
greater  and  better  things  for  us  in  the  future. 

The  use  of  the  Gregorian  Plain  Song  in  its  original,  unbarred  form, 
has  many  advantages,  which  adapt  it  to  the  use  of  Psalmody.  Being 
simple  melody,  devoid  of  harmony,  it  is  admirably  adapted  by  its  sim- 
plicity to  the  use  of  the  ordinary  congregation  and  makes  it  possible  for 
one  with  but  the  knowledge  of  the  rudiments  of  music  to  take  a  com- 
fortable part  in  the  Psalmody  which  is  such  an  important  part  of  the 
service  of  the  Church.  It  adapts  itself  to  the  free  rhythm  of  the  Psalm 
as  no  other  style  of  music.  By  its  use  the  accent  need  never  be  placed 
upon  an  unimportant  and  unaccented  syllable,  as  is  often  the  case  in 
Anglican  chant  or  in  the  modern  form  of  the  Gregorian  tones.  The  prin- 
ciple that  the  music  is  the  handmaid  of  the  words  "Musica  ancilla  verbi" 
may  be  thoroughly  observed  by  the  use  of  this  form  of  chant.  By 
making  possible  the  observance  of  the  free  rhythm  of  the  Psalm  by 
the  structure  of  the  music  the  tiresome  monotony  of  the  ordinary 
chant-tone,  according  to  which  the  accent  always  falls  with  sledge-hammer 
regularity   upon   the   same   place,    is    also   obviated.     A   naturalness   and 


7* 

variety  are  thus  introduced  which  are  absent  from  the  ordinary  method. 
An  understanding  of  the  Gregorian  Song,  here  advocated  as  the  onl> 
proper  chant-form  for  the  practice  of  Psalmody,  will  also  make  it  evi- 
dent that  the  recitation  is  the  essential  and  predominant  clement  in  the 
chant,  and  that  the  rest  is  simply  an  inflection  and  close  to  it.  The  gen- 
eral impression  seems  to  be  that  the  recitation  is  to  be  simply  tolerated 
and  that  the  mediation  and  the  final  are  the  essential  parts,  for  the  sake 
of  which  the  whole  exercise  seems  to  be  undertaken.  As  a  consequence, 
the  recitation  is  indecently  hurried  over  and  "gabbled"  in  the  usual 
practice,  in  the  feverish  hurry  to  get  over  to  the  melodic  parts  of  the 
chant,  as  if,  forsooth,  the  melodies  were  the  all-important  part  to  which 
everything  else  has  to  be  subordinated.  Let  it  be  emphatically  borne  in 
mind  that  the  original  form  of  the  chant  was  the  recitation  of  the  text 
upon  one  note.  The  prime  object  was  not  the  melody,  but  the  expres- 
sion of  the  words  of  worship.  The  inflection  and  the  melody  in  the 
cadences  are  a  development  naturally  resulting  to  break  up  the  monotony 
of  a  recitation  upon  one  note.  The  music  is  for  the  text,  and  not  the 
text  for  the  music. 

The  simple,  majestic,  churchly  dignity  and  the  solemn,  unearthly 
beauty  of  the  Gregorian  tones  adapt  them  especially  to  the  uses  of 
Psalmody  as  well  as  to  the  other  ritual  music  of  the  Church.  The  or- 
dinary, figured  music  has  a  secular,  every-day  character  which  renders  it 
inadequate  to  accompany  the  exalted  Scriptural  terms  of  our  liturgy. 
This  is  felt,  if  not  positively  recognized,  in  the  insipid  chants  to  which 
canticles  like  the  Gloria  in  Excelsis.  the  Nunc  Dimittis  and  others  are 
so  frequently  sung.  This  secular  character  is  entirely  lacking  in  Greg- 
orian Plain  Song.  It  is  the  sacred  music  of  the  Church  of  all  ages, 
and  is  the  only  kind  adequate  to  accompany  and  enrich  the  inspired 
words  of  the  Psalms,  the  canticles  and  the  liturgy. 

In  the  use  of  Psalmody,  as  advocated  in  the  course  of  this  paper, 
we  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  we  are  in  no  respect  aping  any 
other  denomination;  but  that  we  are  employing  that  which  belongs  to 
us  by  peculiar  right.  By  some  the  Gregorian  Plain  Song  is  regarded  as 
the  peculiar  possession  and  absolute  prerogative  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church.  Such  innocently  imagine  that  the  Church  which  dares  to  use 
this  ancient  and  beautiful  form  of  music  in  her  services,  is  on  the  road 
to  Rome.  As  already  noted,  the  musicians  of  our  Church  in  the  six- 
teenth century  were  exceedingly  active  in  the  study  and  use  of  this  form 
of  music  and  in  the  adaptation  thereof  to  the  service  of  the  Church  of 
the  pure  Gospel.  Xo  communion  has  a  greater  right  to  the  treasures 
of  the  pre-Reformation  Church  than  ours;  for  the  Lutheran  Church 
enjoys  a  pure  Apostolic  succession,  not  in  the  external  and  unbroken 
laying  on  of  hands,  but  in  an  unbroken  succession  of  saints  who  held 
the  pure  truth  of  God's  Word,  and  gratefully  accepted  and  appropriated 
what  the  Holy  Spirit  in  all  ages  taught  the  Church. 

Since  we  possess,  then,  by  a  peculiar  and  undisputed  right  such  a 
beautiful  service  and  such  an  unparallelled  Psalmody  set  to  sacred  mel- 
odies, ought  we  not  cultivate  in  our  churches  a  pure,  dignified  and 
churchly  Psalmody?     A  great  and  arduous  task  is  before  us.     As  in  the 


79 

rebuilding  of  the  temple,  there  is  a  great  deal  of  rubbish  in  the  form 
of  false  standards  and  ideals  of  Psalm-  and  ritual-music  not  only  on  the 
part  of  our  laity,  but  also  of  many  of  our  clergy  and  teachers  of  Church 
music,  many  of  whom,  unfortunately,  have  drawn  their  musical  in- 
spiration not  from  pure  Lutheran,  but  from  Reformed,  sources.  How- 
ever, after  the  foundations  have  once  been  reached  and  our  people 
have  learned  to  appreciate  our  glorious  heritage  of  Church  music  as 
well  as  of  doctrine  and  cultus,  the  temple  of  pure  Church-song,  echoing 
sweetly  and  solemnly  with  heavenly  strains,  will  grow  apace  into  beauty 
and  symmetry ;  and  the  presence  of  the  glory  of  God  in  Word  and  Sacra- 
ment will  be  realized  to  a  fuller  and  more  blessed  extent  by  virtue  of 
a  harmony  and  adaptation  between  doctrine,  liturgy  and  sacred  music  as 
close  as  it  can  be  attained  to  this  side  the  courts  of  the  Heavenly  Temple 
pictured  for  us  in  the  exalted  language  of  seer  and  prophet. 


The  Lutheran  Choral. 


BY  THE    REV.   H.  D.  E.  SIEBOTT. 


For  the  origin  of  the  word  "choral"  we  must  go  back  to  the  begin- 
ning of  the  seventh  century.  The  liturgical  music  devised  and  author- 
ized for  the  cult  of  the  Catholic  Church  by  Pope  Gregory  the  Great,  con- 
sisted of  two  parts,  the  one  called  the  Accentus,  comprising  all  those 
portions  which  were  sung  by  the  celebrating  priest,  and  the  other,  called 
Concentus,  all  the  responses.  As  the  congregation  was  excluded  from 
participation  in  the  service,  the  execution  of  this  latter  part  was  en- 
trusted to  the  choir,  the  choir  for  this  purpose  really  being  invested  with 
a  priestly  or  mediating  character,  standing  between  God  and  the  congre- 
gation by  the  side  of  the  priest,  and  not  by  any  means  representing  the 
people.  The  part  sung  by  this  choir,  and  especially  the  longer  responses, 
and  the  old  sacred  hymns  used  in  the  service,  were  called  "Cantus 
Firmus,"  or,  because  rendered  not  by  a  single  voice,  but  by  the  chorus 
of  the  choir,  "Cantus  Choralis,"  or  simply  "Choral."  So  that  the  name 
"Choral"  was  originally  applied  not  to  congregational  singing  as  we 
understand  it,  but  to  the  singing  of  the  choir  in  response  to  the  officiating 
priest.  This  Gregorian  Choral  was,  of  course,  all  in  Latin,  the  language 
of  the  liturgy. 

Very  early,  however,  the  "Volkslied"  of  the  Middle  Ages,  that  is, 
the  secular  and  semi-religious  songs  of  the  people,  began  to  connect 
with  and  to  influence  the  development  of  the  Choral.  The  Cantus 
Choralis,  though  rigid  and  severe  in  its  musical  character,  from  being 
heard  continually  in  the  service  of  the  Church,  became  familiar  to  the 
people,  and  its  simple  strains,  heard  from  childhood  up,  grew  into  them 
and  came  to  be  dear  to  them.  So  that  the  hymns  and  songs  of  the 
people  in  the  vernacular  down  to  the  time  of  the  Reformation  were 
vested  with  melodies  that  were,  perhaps  unconsciously,  but  nevertheless 
truly,  built  upon  those  familiar  and  sacred  sounds  of  the  sanctuary.  For 
example,  our  choral,  "Allein  Gott  in  der  Hoeh  sei  Ehr,"  is  very  clearly 
traced  to  a  fragment  of  the  Gregorian  "Gloria"  ("Et  in  terra  pax  hom- 
inibus,"  etc.),  the  sequence  of  notes  being  the  same,  the  rhythm  and  ac- 
cent only  having  been  changed  and  adapted  to  the  new  words.  Our 
Christmas  choral,  "Gelobet  seist  Du  Jesus  Christ,"  our  incomparable 
Easter  choral,'  "Christ  ist  erstanden,"  our  beautiful  Pentecostal  choral, 
"Nun  bitten  wir  den  heiligen  Geist,"  were  simply  such  sacred  songs  of 
the  people  in  the  vernacular,  produced  independently  of  the  Church,  and 
at  first  not  used  in  the  Church  at  all,  but  nevertheless  deriving  their 
musical  character  from  the  Gregorian  Church  service. 

(Si) 


82 

With  the  time  of  the  Reformation  and  the  awakening  of  a  new 
religious  life  among  the  people,  came  also  a  new  impulse  in  hymnology. 
Sacred  songs  became  popular  as  never  before.  They  were  sung  by  the 
children  on  the  street,  the  farmer  behind  the  plough,  the  milkmaid  in 
the  dairy,  the  wife  in  the  kitchen,  the  workman  at  his  bench.  This 
teeming  religious  life  could  no  longer  be  restrained  by  the  Church  and 
condemned  to  silence  in  her  public  services.  The  people  insisted  upon 
singing  their  hymns  during  processions,  upon  the  great  festivals,  and 
at  other  prominent  and  special  times  in  their  church  life,  and  the  Church 
had  to  yield  to  this  pressure.  Thus  it  happened  that  some  of  our  oldest 
chorals,  like  those  mentioned  above,  were  admitted  into  her  service 
by  the  Catholic  Church  at  a  very-  early  date. 

But  within  the  Church  of  the  Reformation  herself,  of  course,  these 
barriers  had  to  fall  completely.  Justification  by  faith  alone.,  the  universal 
priesthood  of  all  believers  through  their  high  priest.  Christ  Jesus,  the 
recognition  of  the  filial  relation  as  the  proper  relation  to  exist  between 
man  and  God,  all  these  Reformation  ideas  necessarily  required  that  even.' 
avenue  of  communication  between  the  people  and  their  God  should  be 
free  and  unobstructed.  If  Christians  were  again  to  feel  that  they  were 
the  children  of  God,  and  that  they  might  approach  the  throne  of  grace, 
not  through  priests  and  saints,  but  directly  and  personally  through  their 
own  faith,  praying  to  God.  even  as  dear  children  to  their  dear  father, 
then  who  was  going  to  forbid  them  to  sing? — to  sing,  as  all  true  chil- 
dren must?  The  Gospel,  the  glad  tidings  of  the  grace  of  God  in  Jesus 
Christ,  is  the  true  source  of  all  sacred  song.  The  Reformation  again 
placed  this  light  upon  the  candlestick,  and  it  was  inevitable  that  the 
song  of  the  Church  should  give  expression  to  the  peace  and  joy  which 
again  entered  men's  hearts. 

Hence,  in  his  letter  to  Spalatin  in  1524,  Luther  writes:  "I  am  now 
willing  to  make  German  psalms  for  the  people,  that  is.  spiritual  hymns, 
that  the  Word  of  God  through  song  also  may  dwell  among  the  peo- 
ple." And  he  not  only  wrote  this  as  his  purpose,  but  he  proceeded  to 
carry  it  out  with  signal  success.  With  wonderful  enthusiasm  the  people 
received  that  first  great  hymn-book  of  the  Reformation,  published  at 
Wittenberg  in  1524.  It  contained  only  eight  chorals,  but  these  hymns 
proved  to  be  the  seed  out  of  which  a  wonderful  harvest  came  forth. 
They  decided  the  character  and  laid  down  the  lines  of  conservative  de- 
velopment for  that  whole  flood  of  sacred  hymnology  which  poured  in 
upon  the  Church  of  the  Reformation  in  those  stirring  times.  No  Church 
on  earth  has  such  a  rich  treasure  of  choral  poetry,  sterling  in  value  and 
sound  in  doctrine,  as  our  own  Lutheran  Church.  And  her  choral  music 
is  equally  extensive.  Dr.  Zahn.  in  his  work  of  six  volumes  on  Evangel- 
ical Church  Music,  devotes  two  large  volumes  to  the  enumeration  and 
critical  examination  of  8,806  choral  melodies  of  our  Church. 

The  invention  of  the  tunes  of  our  oldest  chorals  has  usually  been 
ascribed  to  the  poets  themselves  who  wrote  the  words.  Modern  search, 
however,  has  discovered  two  principal  sources  to  which  almost  all  these 
melodies  can  be  traced  back.  The  one  is  that  inexhaustible  storehouse 
of  Oriental  and  Occidental  music,  the  Ambrosian  and  Gregorian  Church 


83 

tunes  of  the  Middle  Ages;  and  the  other  is  the  German  "Volkslied"  of 
the  twelfth  and  sixteenth  centuries  inclusive.  A  few  examples:  The 
Ambrosian  "Te  Deum"  and  the  Ambrosian  hymn,  "Veni  redemptor 
gentium,"  form  the  basis  of  our  chorals,  "Herr  Gott  dich  loben  wir," 
"Nun  Komm,  der  Heiden  Heiland,"  "Erhalt  uns  Herr  bei  deinem  Wort," 
"Verleih'  uns  Frieden  gnaediglich,"  "Christ  der  du  bist  der  helle  Tag." 
Upon  the  Gregorian  Concentus  or  chants  of  the  liturgy  are  built  the 
chorals,  "Allein  Gott  in  der  Hoeh  sei  Ehr,"  "O  Lamm  Gottes  unschuldig," 
"Jesaja  dem  Propheten  das  geschah."  And  upon  the  old  Gregorian 
hymns  introduced  into  the  service  are  based  their  respective  translations, 
e  .g.,  "Media  Vita"  ("Mitten  wir  im  Leben  sind  mit  dem  Tod  umfangen"), 
"Veni  sancte  spiritus"  ("Komm  Heiliger  Geist  Herre  Gott"),  and  upon 
the  Latin  Easter  Sequence,  "Victimse  paschali,"  our  chorals.,  "Christ 
ist  erstanden,"  "Christ  fuhr  gen  Himmel,"  "Christ  lag  in  Todesbanden." 
A  few  hymns  also  from  the  very  beginning  were  sung  only  in  the  Ger- 
man language,  such  as  "Nun  bitten  wir  den  heiligen  Geist,"  "Gelobet 
seist  du  Jesus  Christ,"  "Dies  sind  die  heiligen  zehn  Gebot,"  "Wir  glau- 
ben  all  an  einen  Gott,"  "Gott  der  Vater  wohn  uns  bei,"  "Es  ist  das  Heil 
uns  kommen  her,"  "In  dich  hab  ich  gehoffet  Herr,"  "Vater  unser  im 
Himmelreich."  These  formed  the  original  stock  of  chorals  from  this 
source.  To  the  other  source,  that  of  the  German  "Volkslied,"  up  to  the 
time  of  the  Reformation,  we  must  ascribe  all  other  chorals  to  the  year 
1570,  which  cannot  with  certainty  be  traced  to  the  former  source.  From 
the  Volkslied  two  very  important  elements  were  taken  over  into  the 
choral.  The  one  was  rhythm  and  the  other  a  tendency  towards  major 
and  minor  tones  or  keys  instead  of  the  old  Church  tones.  By  rhythm 
is  meant  such  a  balancing  of  the  single  notes  and  the  parts  of  a  melody, 
both  as  to  time  and  accent,  that  they  are  felt  to  constitute  a  unit.  This 
element  was,  of  course,  necessarily  absent  in  the  Gregorian  liturgical 
music,  with  its  interrupted  responsive  character;  it  was  more  marked 
in  the  old  Latin  hymns,  which  were  then  introduced  into  the  service, 
but  it  was  very  pronounced  in  the  Volkslied.  Rhythm,  then,  is  not  an 
artificial  thing,  a  straight  jacket,  as  some  people  seem  to  suppose,  but 
it  is  a  natural  growth,  in  fact  a  necessary  part  of  all  true  melody  and 
living  song.  It  was  brought  from  the  fresh  and  green  forests  by  our 
forefathers  and  introduced  into  the  Church's  music,  which  was  showing 
signs  of  approaching  death  in  cold  formalism. 

Rhythm  is  the  life  of  the  choral.  Like  the  living  soul  in  our  bodies, 
it  is  that  which  permeates  every  member  and  every  part,  binds  them  all 
together,  directs  their  various  activities  and  functions  so  that  they  do 
not  counteract  but  aid  one  another,  all  working  towards  one  end,  the 
accomplishment  of  one  idea  and  purpose. 

To  sing  a  choral  rhythmically  does  not  mean  simply  to  vary  the 
length  of  the  notes.  Some  of  our  oldest  and  most  beautiful  rhythmic 
chorals  have  notes  of  the  same  time  value  throughout.  On  the  other 
hand  a  choral  that  is  composed  of  the  greatest  variety  of  long  and 
short  notes  may  be  sung  in  such  a  way  as  to  completely  destroy  and 
obliterate  all  sense  of  unity,  interdependence  and  co-operation  of  the 
different  parts. 


84 

Nor  does  the  rhythm  of  a  choral  consist  in  a  genera!  rapid  tempo. 
Now  and  then  we  still  meet  an  organist  or  the  "unrhythmic"  school, 
who  tells  us  that  it  is  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world  to  play  a  choral 
rhythmically,  but  that  there  is  no  beauty  in  it:  and  he  will  take  his  old 
choral  book  and  play  the  equalized,  long-note  chorals  in  it  in  double- 
quick  time!  Of  course,  there  is  no  beauty  in  it.  The  fact  is.  there  is 
no  easier  way  of  destroying  the  beauty  of  a  choral  than  to  sing  or 
play  it  too  fast.  The  very  nature  of  the  choral,  as  a  vehicle  of  expression 
for  that  which  is  most  sacred  to  the  congregation,  distinguishes  it  from 
all  other  music  in  this  respect,  and  forbids  everything  approaching  to 
triviality. 

To  rightly  interpret  the  rhythm  of  a  choral  it  is  necessary  to  catch 
its  spirit.  And  this  cannot  be  done  by  simply  regarding  the  choral  as 
a  piece  of  musical  composition.  The  choral  music  and  the  choral  text 
belong  together.  They  are  complements  of  each  other,  and  to  get  a 
true  conception  of  the  one  you  must  have  the  other  also.  The  popular 
mind  instinctively  connects  the  two.  Who  can  hear  the  majestic  strains 
of  a  choral  like  "Jerusalem,  du  hochgebaute  Stadt."  or  "Wachet  auf.  ruft 
uns  die  Stimme,"  without  at  once  thinking  of  the  words,  and  vice  versa? 
The  spirit  of  the  text  will  also  inspire  the  music,  and  the  state  of  mind 
produced  by  the  lofty  sentiments  of  the  text  will  dictate  the  proper  inter- 
pretation and  rendition  of  the  musical  composition  to  the  thoughtful 
musician. 

Right  here  also  is  to  be  found  the  source  and  reason  of  that  process 
of  corruption  and  degeneration  which  the  choral  underwent  in  the  times 
following  the  Reformation  era.  That  fervent  religious  enthusiasm  which 
brought  forth  the  great  bulk  of  the  German  choral  literature  and  music 
was  cooling  oft  and  gradually  dying  out  and  giving  place  more  and 
more  to  the  spirit  of  Pietism  on  the  one  hand  and  Rationalism  on  the 
other  in  the  eighteenth  century.  To  neither  of  these  tendencies  was 
the  old  choral,  with  its  rugged  and  sturdy  religious  vitality,  any  longer 
palatable.  It  was  too  harsh  and  objective  for  the  Pietist,  and  he  replaced 
it  largely  with  songs  of  a  softer,  more  subjective  and  sentimental  char- 
acter in  their  text.  And  the  Rationalist  found  these  old  chorals  far  too 
orthodox  in  their  theology  and  not  liberal  enough  for  the  times:  con- 
sequently he  set  to  work  and  '"doctored"  the  text,  altering,  smoothing 
over  or  removing  altogether,  so  as  to  suit  the  religious  taste  of  the  day. 
The  music  of  the  old  choral  underwent  a  similar  process.  The  intro- 
duction of  that  other  element,  taken  over  from  the  Volkslied  into  the 
Gregorian  Church  music  besides  rhythm,  namely,  the  tendency  towards 
major  and  minor  tonality  in  place  of  the  old  Church  tones,  seems  to  have 
been  the  first  step  in  the  direction  of  modernizing  Church  music.  In 
looking  back  over  the  intervening  years  in  the  history  of  Church  music, 
we  must  see  that  this  was  a  step  fraught  with  momentous  consequences. 
It  was  a  movement  not  in  the  direction  of  the  more  natural,  as  was  the 
introduction  of  rhythm,  but  in  the  direction  of  the  artificial.  And  al- 
though in  the  course  of  time  it  led  to  the  most  beautiful  musical  cre- 
ations built  upon  the  foundation  of  the  choral,  especially  also  with  the 
advent  and  improvement  of  the  Church  organ  in  the  line  of  instrumental 


85 

music,  like  the  compositions  of  Bach  and  Handel;  yet  on  the  other  hand 
it  taught  men  to  tamper  with  the  old  and  venerable  Church  tunes,  to 
neglect  and  consequently  despise  them,  and  regard  them  as  out  of  date 
and  far  behind  the  times,  or  else  to  remodel  them  so  as  to  better  suit 
the  popular  taste.  The  collection  of  old  chorals  came  to  be  regarded 
by  the  musicians  as  a  sort  of  cabinet  of  antiquities,  from  which  they 
would  take  now  and  then  one  of  the  old  chorals  to  serve  as  a  theme,  as 
a  foundation  upon  which  to  build  their  own  musical  air  castles.  It  is  easy 
to  see  that  for  this  purpose  the  quantitative  rhythm  of  the  old  chorals 
was  a  hindrance  and  had  to  yield;  the  notes  were  all  equalized  in  length,  so 
as  to  form  a  more  even  basis.  At  the  same  time  this  quantitative  rhythm 
had  also  become  objectionable  to  the  congregations  in  their  singing,  and 
was  gradually  removed  altogether. 

The  trouble  was  that  the  people  had  grown  away  from  the  spirit 
and  the  religion  of  the  old  choral;  the  same  reason  that  accounts  to  a 
large  extent  for  the  unpopularity  of  the  choral  to-day.  In  their  religious 
lethargy  and  sentimentalism  it  cost  the  children  of  that  time  an  effort 
to  reproduce  that  which  had  come  almost  spontaneously  from  the  lips 
of  their  fathers,  fervent  and  vigorous  in  faith.  Something  easier  and 
more  comfortable  was  needed.  And  so  it  came  about  that  the  notes  of 
the  rhythmic  choral  were  equalized,  made  of  the  same  time  length. 
This  length  grew  to  be  such  in  some  sections  of  the  land  that  old  people 
especially  had  to  take  breath  after  each  note.  A  short  pause  in  the  sing- 
ing was  made  after  every  line,  to  be  filled  out  by  the  organist  with  a 
few  graceful  flourishes  leading  over  to  the  first  note  of  the  next  line; 
and  a  longer  pause  after  every  stanza,  occupied  by  an  extensive  interlude 
from  the  organ,  sometimes  so  extensive  that  it  was  much  longer  than 
the  stanza  itself,  and,  of  course,  very  often  actually  disturbing  to  the  de- 
votion of  the  congregation,  because  not  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of 
the  choral,  when  performed  by  an  irreligious  and  tactless  organist.  This 
arrangement  was,  however,  eminently  suitable,  and  is  so  to-day,  for 
people  who  are  half  asleep  in  church  and  in  their  religious  life.  But 
the  original  rhythmic  choral  presupposes  a  lively  interest  in  the  subject 
of  the  song,  a  feeling  that  the  things  sung  about  are  of  the  very  greatest 
importance.  This  interest  lacking,  of  course  the  rhythmic  choral  requires 
too  much  effort  to  sing,  and  becomes  unpopular.  But  should  this  in- 
terest ever  be  lacking?  A  wide-awake  spirit  should  always  characterize 
the  worshiper's  devotion  and  service.  And  for  such  service  the  choral  is 
peculiarly  adapted.  It  combines  the  divine  and  the  human  most  har- 
moniously. As  a  medium  of  expression  for  the  believer  in  the  Church 
service,  it  excludes  everything  worldly  and  profane,  both  in  text  and 
music,  everything  that  is  likely  to  offend  the  religious  consciousness  of  the 
believer.  The  joy  it  expresses  is  not  the  hilarity  and  frivolity  of  the 
world,  but  that  deep  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  sadness  it 
at  times  expresses  is  not  pessimism,  melancholia,  despondency  or  despair, 
but  rather  that  "godly  sorrow  that  worketh  repentance  to  salvation  not 
to  be  repented  of."  As  a  medium  of  expressing  the  divine  truth  it  has 
dignity,  depth  and  power  suitable  and  worthy  of  proclaiming  the  mysteries 
of  godliness.     This,  especially,  is  the  sphere  of  the  choral.     It  is  to  fill 


86 

the  place  of  the  Hymn  in  the  Church  service.  A  true  Hymn  is  uot 
the  expression  of  our  subjective  life  of  faith,  our  feelings  and  religious  im- 
pulses, but  the  proclamation  and  magnification  of  the  great  facts  of 
our  salvation  as  revealed  in  the  Gospel.  Here  is  where  the  choral,  in 
its  ancient  simplicity,  solid  massiveness,  dignity  and  yet  thorough  hearti- 
ness and  warm  .life,  is  indispensable  in  our  service. 

The  choral  is  also  specially  adapted  for  congregational  singing  in 
that  it  is  easy  of  execution  and  practicable  for  a  large  body  of  earnest 
men.  Yea,  the  real  beauty  of  a  choral  is  apparent  only  when  rendered  by 
a  mass  of  people.  There  is  an  irresistible  power  which  carries  along 
and  merges  every  individual  in  a  large  congregation  singing  with  earnest- 
ness and  enthusiasm  one  of  those  old  rhythmic  chorals.  They  were  not 
made  to  be  sung  by  a  quartette  of  trained  voices  from  the  choir  loft, 
but  by  the  whole  congregation  of  men,  women  and  children.  Neither 
were  they  made  for  any  particular  age  in  life.  Because  of  the  Word  of 
God  they  contain,  they  are  suitable  for  old  and  young.  They  are  edu- 
cational in  character  and  will  appeal  at  all  times  to  the  best  impulses 
in  the  worshiper,  and  aid  him  in  rising  above  the  sensual  and  the 
worldly.  Even  the  music  of  the  choral  partakes  of  this  characteristic; 
those  old  rhythmic  tunes  will  not  cloy  the  taste  like  the  sweetish  melodies 
that  are  often  used  in  place  of  them,  but  they  will  "wear  well."  Here 
also  is  seen  the  great  difference  between  the  choral  and  that  mass  of 
questionable  material  which  has  usurped  its  place  in  our  times  in  many 
churches.  The  former,  because  it  preaches  the  Divine  Word,  is  on  the 
side  of  God,  lifting  man  up  to  a  higher  level,  educating  him  in  the  highest 
and  best  sense  of  the  word;  the  latter  is  on  the  side  of  man,  stooping 
down  to  his  level,  catering  to  his  transient  appetites,  seeking  only  pop- 
ularity, with  rarely  a  higher  aim  than  to  entertain  and  to  please. 

This  displacement  or  adaptation  of  the  choral  to  the  taste  of  the 
time*  is  simply  one  of  the  many  applications  of  a  wrong  principle  in 
church  work,  with  the  consequent  sad  result.  The  Church  in  all  her  oper- 
ations and  activities  should  be  characterized  by  a  firmness  and  stability 
which  are  rooted  and  grounded  in  the  Word  of  God.  This  does  not 
imply  stagnation,  but  means  true  progress.  If  in  all  things  the  Church 
take  the  Word  of  God  as  the  sole  rule  and  guide,  it  will  mean  that  the 
steps  she  takes  will  not  need  to  be  retraced  because  of  an  error  in  cal- 
culation at  the  start,  even  though  it  seem  that  progress  is  not  made  very 
rapidly.  In  church  music,  and  especially  in  the  matter  of  congregational 
singing,  let  us  apply  the  correct  principle,  the  infallible  rule  and  guide. 
Let  us  take  notice  of  the  musical  inclinations  of  the  times  and  the  popu- 
lar taste,  to  be  sure,  but  let  us  not  be  guided  by  them.  These  are  not  the 
guides,  but  rather  the  things  to  be  guided.  Even  the  music  of  the  Church 
should  be  educational  and  corrective.  Music  will  be  that,  if  she  remain 
the  handmaid  of  religion,  for  religion,  that  is,  the  Word  of  God,  is  the 
great  educational  and  corrective  force  on  earth.  Let  the  Lutheran 
Church  in  this  sense  prosecute  a  conservative  reformation  in  the  sphere 
of  Church  music  and  she  will  aid  the  cause  of  true  progress.  Let  the 
important  and  the  decisive  questions  for  the  pastor  and  organist  in  every 
case  be,  not:  Is  this  tune  or  meter  pretty?     Is  it  popular?     Do  the  people 


87 

like  to  sing  it?  Is  it  suitable  for  old  people?  Is  it  suitable  for  chil- 
dren? Is  it  old  or  is  it  modern?  Is  it  elaborate  or  is  it  simple?  But 
these:  What  is  the  religious  sentiment  and  doctrine  of  the  text?  Is  this 
song  sound  in  its  theology?  Does  it  agree  with  God's  Word  in  every 
particular?  Does  the  music  suit  this  element  of  Divine  truth  contained 
in  the  hymn;  is  it  a  fitting  dress? 

Examined  in  this  way,  no  one  will  fail  soon  to  see  the  great  value  and 
great  beauty  of  our  old  chorals,  he  will  learn  to  love  them  and  to  use 
them  as  invaluable  aids  in  his  own  spiritual  life  and  that  of  the  Church  at 
large.  The  same  considerations  that  lead  our  theologians  back  to  the 
works  of  the  fathers  of  the  Reformation,  and  our  liturgists  to  the  liturgies 
of  those  times,  will  lead  the  thoughtful  Lutheran  Church  musician  back 
to  that  old  and  ever  new  treasure  of  our  Church,  the  German  Rhythmic 
Choral. 


Anglican  Church  Music 


BY  THE  REV.  J.  F.  OHL,  MUS.  DOC. 


The  Church  of  England,  though  in  its  musical  development  like 
the  Church  of  Germany,  often  influenced  from  without,  can  nevertheless 
justly  lay  claim  to  a  school  of  music  of  its  own. 

The  foundation  of  this  school  was  laid  soon  after  the  Reformation 
and  was  due  directly  to  the  encouragement  given  to  musical  art  by 
English  royalty.  Under  Henry  VIII.,  Edward  VI.  and  Elizabeth,  the 
remodeled  Cathedral-service  received  the  most  generous  and  noble 
musical  treatment  in  a  style  altogether  worthy  of  the  best  traditions 
of  pure  Church  music.  The  composers  of  the  Reformation  period  were 
familiar  with  the  best  forms  of  Roman  Catholic  Church  music,  espe- 
cially with  the  works  of  the  then  dominant  Belgian  or  Flemish  school 
of  composers,  whose  great  representatives  were  Dufay,  Ockenheim,  Des 
Pres,  Willaert  and  Orlando  Lassus.  "Indeed  the  middle  of  the  six- 
teenth century,"  says  an  eminent  authority,*  "presents  at  once  as  re- 
spectable an  array  of  fine  composers,  familiar  with  all  the  musical  forms 
both  sacred  and  secular,  as  then  existed — one  capable  of  taking  a  dis- 
tinguished rank  among  the  masters  of  other  European  nations ;  while  at  the 
same  time  to  them  belonged  the  honor  of  having  given  their  country  a 
school  of  music  in  many  respects  as  original  as  it  was  profound,  and,  con- 
sidered in  all  its  importance,  the  most  remarkable  effort  in  musical  art 
which  the  English  nation  can  boast  of." 

The  principal  Church  composers  of  this  period  were  Christopher 
Tye  (c.  1500-1560),  John  Merbecke  (1-523- 1585),  Thomas  Tallis  (1529- 
1585),  William  Byrd  (1543-1623),  Richard  Farrant  (d.  1580),  and  Or- 
lando Gibbons  (1583-1625),  who  is  sometimes  called  the  "English  Pales- 
trina."  Of  these  Merbecke  did  for  the  Prayer  Book  what  Walther 
helped  to  do  for  Luther's  German  Mass;  he  gave  it  its  first  Plain  So»g 
setting,  a  setting  subsequently  harmonized  by  Tallis  and  still  in  use. 

These  composers,  with  a  complete  mastery  of  the  arts  of  counter- 
point, and  knowing  how  to  use  most  effectively  many  voices  in  com- 
bination, wrote  in  the  purely  vocal  style  then  in  vogue,  on  the  basis 
of  the  ecclesiastical  keys,  but  with  much  more  beauty  of  expression  and 
less  pedantry  than  often  marked  the  Flemish  school.  In  this  respect  they 
approached  the  clear,  devotional  style  of  Palestrina.  Rockstro  thus  char- 
acterizes their  efforts:  "Tye's  compositions  are  massive  and  full  of 
sober  dignity.  Tallis,  best  known  by  his  beautiful  Responses  and  Lit- 
any, was  one  of  the  most  learned,  as  well  as  the  most   graceful   com- 

*Ritter :    Music  in  England,  p.  26.  (89) 


90 

posers  of  the  age.  .  .  .  His  Anthems  and  his  Hymns  are  as  remark- 
able for  their  beauty  of  expression  as  for  their  technical  perfection. 
Byrd's  compositions  are  less  remarkable  for  the  grace,  though  not 
for  the  dignity  of  their  style,  than  those  of  his  master,  Tallis.  Farrant, 
on  the  contrary,  cultivated  the  charms  of  expression  with  never-failing 
success;  and  it  is  deeply  to  be  regretted  that  but  very  few  of  his  com- 
positions have  been  preserved  to  us.  Orlando  Gibbons,  the  last  great 
luminary  of  the  period,  yielded  to  none  of  his  predecessors,  either  in 
dignity  or  grace.  He  maintained  the  traditions  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury intact,  until  his  death  in  1625;  and  has  left  us  much  of  the  finest 
Cathedral  music  we  possess. "* 

The  development  of  English  Church  music  received  a  serious  check 
at  the  hands  of  the  Puritans.  In  their  wild  fanaticism  they  dispersed 
choirs,  destroyed  organs  and  office  books,  condemned  sacred  art  as  an 
inspiration  from  the  Evil  One,  and  tolerated  only  the  singing  of  metrical 
Psalms  in  unison  after  the  Genevan  fashion.  This  vandalism  however 
ceased  with  the  Restoration.  On  his  accession  Charles  II.  at  once 
reorganized  the  choir  of  the  Chapel  Royal  on  a  grander  scale  than 
before  and  committed  its  management  to  Captain  Henry  Cooke,  who 
had  been  a  chorister  in  the  chapel  of  Charles  I.  Among  the  boys  of 
the  new  choir  were  three  who  afterwards  became  distinguished  com 
posers  and  leaders  of  the  new  English  style,  to  wit.  Pelham  Humphrey. 
Michael  Wise,  and  John  Blow.  In  1664  Humphrey  was.  at  the  king's 
expense  and  in  accordance  with  the  king's  musical  taste,  sent  to  the 
Continent  to  pursue  his  studies  chiefly  under  Lulli.  at  Paris.  And  this 
marks  the  transition  in  English  Church  music  from  the  old  style,  based 
on  the  Church  modes,  to  the  new  style  that  came  with  the  modern 
major  and  minor  scales  and  the  introduction  of  the  chord  of  the  dom- 
inant seventh  and  of  the  perfect  cadence.  It  was  about  this  time  that 
the  Italian  opera,  with  its  arias,  and  the  increasing  attention  paid  to 
instrumental  music,  began  powerfully  to  affect  Church  music  every- 
where :  and  "the  influence  of  the  now  universally  popular  dramatic 
music."  says  Ritter,  "banished  from  the  composer's  mind  the  tradition 
of  a  strict  Church  style.  Thus  the  forms  of  the  opera  gradually  crept 
into  the  mass.  hymn,  psalm,  etc."  Of  this  lighter  style  of  Church  music 
Charles  had  become  especially  fond  during  his  exile  on  the  Continent. 
It  is  therefore  not  surprising  to  find  that  with  the  Restoration  a  new 
and  livelier  style  of  Church  music  was  introduced,  abounding  in  brilliant 
solo  passages  and  often  accompanied  by  orchestral  instruments.  This 
style  reached  its  greatest  perfection  in  Henry  Purcell  (165S-1695).  who 
had  likewise  been  one  of  Cooke's  choristers,  and  who  is  regarded  as 
England's  greatest  musical  genius.  The  traditions  of  the  Restoration 
school  of  composers  were  continued  by  Clark.  Croft,  Weldon,  Greene, 
Boyce.   and  others. 

"The    compositions    of    this    period.5'    says    Dr.    E.    G.    Monk,    "are 
mostly  distinguished  by  novelty  of  plan  and  detail,   careful  and  expres- 
sive treatment  ot  text,  daring  harmonies  and  flowing  ease  of  voice  parts; 
while  occasionally  the  very  depths  of  pathos  seem  to  have  been  sounded." 
♦History  of  Music,  pp.  80,  81. 


9i 

And  Ritter  remarks  that  in  spite  of  the  secular  and  rather  frivolous 
material  with  which  the  composers  of  the  Restoration  period  had  to 
build  up  the  new  forms  in  order  to  please  their  royal  protector,  "their 
works  present  so  many  fine  qualities  and  are  less  in  conflict  with  the 
traditions  of  a  true  Church  style  than  might  have  been  expected  from 
the  influence  of  their  worldly  surroundings." 

After  Boyce,  whose  works,  especially  his  Full  Anthems,  are  among 
the  best  that  the  English  Church  has  produced,  another  change  took 
place.  There  were  few  original  composers,  but  a  host  of  adapters,  who. 
as  Barrett  says,  "did  much  mischief  by  fostering  a  taste  for  the  insip- 
idly pretty  in  Church  music  in  the  place  of  the  worthy,  the  noble,  and 
the  devotional."  The  one  notable  exception  was  Jonathan  Battishill, 
whose  compositions  for  the  Church  are  in  many  respects  unsurpassed. 

A  new  and  productive  period — the  modern —  began  with  Thomas 
Attwood,  a  pupil  of  Mozart,  and  prominent  as  an  organist  and  com- 
poser from  1787  to  his  death,  in  1838.  Among  the  large  number  of 
composers  of  this  period  Samuel  Sebastian  Wesley  and  Sir  John  Goss 
deserve  the  most  conspicuous  place  for  the  fine  quality  of  their  work. 
Others  well  known  are  Dykes,  Hopkins,  Ouseley,  Stainer,  Smart,  Gar- 
rett, Macfarren,  Elvey,  Calkin,  Tours  and  the  two  Monks.  Probably 
the  greatest  fault  of  many  of  the  more  recent  composers  is  a  certain 
nervous  striving  after  dramatic   effects. 

Let  us  now  consider  somewhat  in  detail  the  musical  constituents  of 
the    English    Cathedral-service. 

a.     The  Chant. 

The  English  Church,  like  the  German,  at  the  Reformation  retained 
the  Gregorian  tones  for  the  Psalms  and  Canticles.  The  first  notated 
Prayer  Book,  by  John  Merbecke,  1550,  is  an  adaptation  of  the  ancient 
Plain  Song  to  the  English  words.  During  the  time  of  the  Common- 
wealth the  service,  with  its  traditional  music,  fell  away;  but  within  a 
year  after  the  Restoration,  in  1661,  Edward  Lowe  already  published 
his  "Short  Directions  for  the  Performance  of  the  Cathedral-Service,"  in 
which  the  eight  tones  and  nearly  all  of  their  endings  are  given  according 
to  the  Roman  Antiphonary;  and  in  1664  a  similar  work  appeared,  edited 
by  James  Clifford,  Minor  Canon  of  St.  Paul's,  London.  But,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  the  period  of  the  Restoration  brought  with  it  a  taste  for 
lighter  music,  and  this  could  not  fail  to  influence  the  chant.  Composers 
in  the  new  style  began  to  write  chants  of  their  own,  which,  like  the 
Gregorian,  comprised  two  members — the  first  consisting  of  a  Reciting 
Note  and  Mediation,  the  second  of  a  Reciting  Note  and  Cadence,  but 
without  an  Intonation  at  the  beginning  of  the  chant,  as  in  the  Gregorian. 
Some  of  these  chants  by  the  earlier  composers  are  dignified  compositions, 
answering  almost  every  requirement  of  a  proper  Church  style;  but,  as 
under  the  influence  of  the  French  and  Italian  schools  the  conceptions 
regarding  Church  music  gradually  changed,  and  the  desire  for  variety 
and  pretty  melodies  became  constantly  more  pronounced,  the  chant  too 
often  ceased  to  be  stately  and  dignified  recitative,  as  it  always  should 
be,   and   became  a   florid,   weak   and   insipid   tune.     This   was   especially 


92 

true  of  the  so-called  double  chants,  the    use    of    which    is    always  to  be 
deprecated. 

Nevertheless,  among  the  vast  number  of  Anglican  chants,  old  and 
new,  there  are  many  to  which  even  the  most  pronounced  Gregorianist 
cannot  object.  I  now  have  in  mind  those  single  chants  that,  like  the 
Gregorian,  move  in  a  limited  and  easy  compass  and  preserve  as  much 
as  possible  the  solemn  character  and  manly  vigor  of  the  Gregorian 
tones.  The  question  might  even  be  raised  whether  in  English  churches 
these  are  not  in  some  respects  better  adapted  for  congregational  use 
than  the  Gregorian  melodies,  that  is,  when  the  latter  are  sung  according 
to  the  traditional  method,  which,  beyond  question,  is  the  syllabic. 
Whether  the  average  congregation  can  unite  in  this  mode  of  chanting 
is  doubtful;  and  yet  the  Psalm  should  not  be  given  exclusively  to  the 
choir.  But  when  Anglicans  are  used  a  difficulty  arises  in  connection  with 
the  Antiphon.  The  music  of  the  Antiphons  as  we  now  have  it,  is  always 
based  on  the  tone  to  which  the  Psalm  or  Canticle  that  follows  is  to  be 
sung.;  and  perhaps  others  have  been  as  unfavorably  impressed  as  I  have 
been  to  hear  a  choir  sail  boldly  from  a  dignified  Gregorian  Antiphon  into 
a  chant  of  totally  different  character  and  construction.  If  Anglicans  be 
used  I  give  it  as  my  judgment  that  the  Antiphon  had  as  a  rule  better  be 
omitted. 

As  regards  the  music  of  the  Responses  the  statement  might  here  be 
in  place  that  the  old  English  is  still  the  best.  What  Merbecke  and 
Tallis  did  in  this  respect  has  not  yet  been  surpassed  or  even  equalled  in 
the  English  Church,  and  both  based  their  work  on  the  Gregorian 
Plain  Song.  The  endeavor  to  make  sweet,  sensuous  tunes  out  of  Re- 
sponses is  a  perversion  to  which  we  are  unfortunately  obliged  to  listen 
altogether  too  often  in  our  churches.  The  nearer  all  the  Responses  con- 
form to  the  recitative  character  of  Plain  Song,  and  the  fewer  abrupt 
key  changes  and  chromatic  harmonies,  the  better. 

b.     The  Anthem. 

Another  product  of  the  Anglican  Church  and  the  artistic  culmina- 
tion of  its  Cathedral-service  is  the  Anthem.  The  Anthem  is  for  the 
choir — in  the  English  churches  always  a  well-trained  chorus-choir.  Its 
words  are  as  a  rule  taken  from  the  Scriptures,  very  often  from  the 
Psalms,  though  sometimes  the  Collects  and  other  portions  of  the  Prayer 
Book  are  also  used.  When  the  Canticles  and  the  Communion  Office  are 
treated  in  Anthem  fashion,  the  settings  are  technically  called  "Services/' 

According  to  the  form  of  the  music,  Anthems  are  divided  into  full, 
verse,  and  solo.  Full  Anthems  consist  entirely  of  chorus,  with  or  with- 
out instrumental  accompaniment.  In  Verse  Anthems,  solos,  duets  and 
trios  hold  the  prominent  place,  with  little  or  no  chorus  work.  Some- 
times a  Full  Anthem  has  a  subordinate  middle  verse  movement  in  four 
parts  to  be  sung  only  by  one  side  of  the  choir.  The  character  of  the 
Solo  Anthem  is  indicated  by  its  title.  This  form,  however,  always  con- 
cludes with  a  short  chorus. 

During  the  first  or  Motet  Period,  i.  e.,  from  the  time  of  the  Reform- 
ation to  about  the  death  of  Gibbons  or  a  little  later,  most  of  the 
Anthems  are  full,  and  do  not  need  an  instrumental  accompaniment;   in 


93 

fact,  are  much  more  effective  without  it.  The  Verse  and  Solo  Anthems 
originated  with  the  Restoration — the  period  of  the  development  of  the 
aria  and  instrumental  music,  and  of  French  and  Italian  influence.  From 
this  time  forward  the  instrumental  accompaniment  assumed  increasing 
importance.  The  organ  part  became  almost  indispensable,  and  elaborate 
orchestral  parts  were  often  added.  "In  the  Anthems  of  the  more  mod- 
ern period,"  says  an  English  writer,  "  the  organ  is  exalted  almost  to 
the  dignity  of  a  solo  instrument,  many  Anthems  being  written  less 
for  vocal  than  for  instrumental  effect.  The  variety  of  stops,  improved 
mechanism  of  the  organ,  and  the  advanced  skill  of  cathedral  organists 
form  a  combination  too  tempting  to  the  composer,  who  is,  in  most 
cases,  himself  an  organist.  The  tendency  of  most  of  the  music  written 
for  the  organ  is  to  treat  it  as  an  imitation  of  an  orchestra;  this  im- 
proper use  of  the  instrument  is  influencing  the  character  of  the  Anthems 
of  the  present  day;  and,  unless  composers  are  wise  in  time,  the  Church 
music  of  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  will  be  as  feeble  and  as  useless 
to  future  generations  as  that  of  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century." 
The  Anthems  and  "Services"  of  Calkin  and  Tours  are  a  conspicuous 
illustration  of  this  sort  of  writing. 

But  whatever  may  be  the  shortcomings  of  given  periods  in  the  his- 
tory of  English  Church  music,  we  must  not  be  blind  to  the  fact  that 
in  the  long  list  of  Anthems  and  "Services"  from  Tallis,  Byrd  and  Gib- 
bons down  to  Wesley,  Goss  and  others  of  the  present  century,  there 
are  many  of  surpassing  excellence  and  beauty.  Some  of  the  compositions 
of  the  first  period  are  equal  to  the  very  best  productions  of  the  masters 
in  the  true  Church  style  in  other  lands.  Thus  "Bow  Down  Thine  Ear," 
and  "Sing  Joyfully,"  by  Byrd;  and  "Hosanna  to  the  Son  of  David," 
"Lift  Up  Your  Heads,"  "O,  Clap  Your  Hands  Together,"  and  "Al- 
mighty and  Everlasting  God,"  by  Gibbons,  are  pronounced  "master- 
pieces of  vocal  writing,  which  can  never  grow  out  of  date."  And 
though  after  the  Restoration  the  character  of  Church  music  changed, 
yet  many  composers  since  then  have  written  in  a  style  altogether  worthy 
of  the  Church,  combining  in  their  works  much  of  the  solid  strength 
and  dignity  of  the  older  music  with  the  melodic  grace  and  harmonic 
beauty  of  modern  forms.  Thus  not  to  have  Blow's  "I  Beheld  and  Lo!" 
Croft's  "God  is  Gone  Up,"  Boyce's  "By  the  Waters  of  Babylon,"  Battis- 
hill's  "Call  to  Remembrance,"  for  seven  voices,  Goss'  "O  Give  Thanks," 
and  many  other  compositions  of  equal  merit  would  be  a  distinct  loss  to 
Church  music. 

To  what  extent  we  can  use  this  music  in  the  services  of  our  Church 
is  perhaps  a  question.  In  the  Lutheran  orders  there  is  no  place  for 
the  Anthem  in  the  English  sense,  except  it  be  between  the  Lessons  in 
the  Morning  Service  at  the  place  of  the  ancient  Gradual,  or  after  the 
last  Lesson  in  Matins  and  Vespers  where  the  Responsory  is  introduced, 
which  is  specifically  meant  for  the  choir.  Nevertheless,  however  much 
we  emphasize  the  principle  of  congregational  worship,  we  do  no  violence 
to  a  correct  liturgical  practice  when  we  recognize  the  artistic  element 
by  the  introduction  of  polyphonic  music  through  the  medium  of  a 
well-trained    chorus-choir.     This,    indeed,    was    a    part    of   the    Lutheran 


94 

conception  of  worship  from  the  beginning;  and  thus  came  into  being 
the  motets  of  Walther,  Senfel,  Eccard,  Hassler  and  others.  But  the 
choir  must  never  assume  an  independent  or  autocratic  position;  and 
whatever  it  does  to  enrich  the  service,  it  must  do  in  the  spirit  of  devout 
worship  and  to  assist  devotion.  If,  therefore,  an  Anthem  be  sung,  the 
words  must  suit  the  day  and  occasion,  and  the  music  must  invariably  be 
of  a  kind  appropriate  to  the  house  of  God.  Such  Anthems  for  the  entire 
Church  year  it  is  not  difficult  to  find  in  the  large  stock  of  Anglican 
music;  but  let  organists  and  choir-masters  have  enough  acquaintance 
with  the  genuine  Church  music  of  the.  past  to  know  how  to  separate 
the  wheat  from  the  chaff  in  making  their  selections. 

c.     The  Hymn  Tune. 

Some  time  ago,  in  another  paper  read  in  this  place,  an  effort  was 
made  to  trace  the  evolution  of  the  congregational  Hymn  Tune.  It  was 
there  shown  that  early  English  Psalmody  was  to  an  extent  influenced  by 
Germany  but  much  more  by  Geneva.  The  early  tunes  are  therefore 
massive  and  imposing.  Coming  to  the  period  of  the  English  Glee,  say 
from  about  1750  to  1830,  the  tunes  produced  are  found  to  be  less  strong 
and  more  flowing  in  style.  The  modern  tune,  with  few  exceptions,  is 
in  the  free  style,  often  reminding  one  of  the  part-song,  and  not  infre- 
quently abounding  in  chromatic  progressions.  Though  perhaps  none  of 
the  English  tunes  are  comparable  with  the  melodies  from  the  classical 
period  of  Lutheran  Church  song,  having  as  a  rule  a  totally  different 
character,  yet  many  of  them  are  so  infinitely  superior  to  the  light  and 
sentimental  tunes  and  adaptations  so  often  heard  in  churches  using  the 
English  language,  and  have  such  a  noble  dignity  of  their  own,  that  we 
make  no  mistake  in  recommending  their  use.  But  here  again  intimate 
acquaintance  with  the  true  Church  style  and  with  the  old  treasures  of 
Church  song  is  absolutely  necessary  in  order  to  choose  wisely. 

Summarizing,  we  would  say  that  Anglican  music,  especially  since 
the  Restoration,  has  a  character  of  its  own,  which  it  is  perhaps  difficult 
to  define  in  precise  terms.  Though  no  longer  in  the  strict  ecclesiastical 
style  of  a  former  period,  and  judged  by  this  standard  perhaps  inferior 
to  the  compositions  of  the  Elizabethan  epoch,  yet  it  cannot  in  its  best 
examples  be  said  to  be  modern  in  the  sense  of  secular  music,  for  it 
is  not  secular.  Even  the  Verse  and  Solo  Anthem  that  new  influences 
extracted  from  the  pens  of  composers,  and  which,  according  to  the 
correct  conceptions  of  public  worship,  should  be  used  most  sparingly,  did 
not  always  degenerate  to  the  low  and  vulgar  level  that  might  be  sup- 
posed; whilst  the  "Services"  and  Full  Anthems  of  the  best  composers 
often  rise  to  a  noble  grandeur  and  a  height  of  devotional  fervor  and 
artistic  beauty  that  at  once  stamps  them  as  the  productions  of  men  who 
realized  that  they  wrote  for  the  Church  and  not  for  the  stage.  In  this 
respect  there  is,  for  instance,  a  vast  difference  between  the  full  English 
Cathedral-service  and  the  brilliant  but  secular  and  oft-times  noisy  masses 
of  a  Haydn  and  a  Mozart,  who,  with  all  their  mighty  genius  in  other 
departments,  did  not  know  how  to  write  Church  music,  or  cared  not  to 
do  so.  .  ;   } 


95 

There  is  then  no  doubt  that  in  the  English  school  we  may  find  much 
that  accords  with  the  best  traditions  of  our  Church  and  that  we  can  use 
to  good  advantage  in  our  services.  As  Luther  did  not  hesitate  to  ap- 
propriate the  motets  of  the  Flemish  master  Des  Pres,  the  melodies  of 
the  Bohemian  Brethren,  the  Plain  Song  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and 
even  the  Volkslied;  and  as  the  Anglican  Church  is  for  so  many  of  its 
good  things  indebted  to  us,  we  may  with  equal  propriety  add  to  our 
own  good  stock  some  of  its  treasures  of  sacred  song.  But  once  more 
the  caution:  Study  the  old,  that  you  may  know  what  to  take  and  what 
to  leave  of  that  which  is  more  modern. 


